Lou Thomas (John Target)

Photographer and filmmaker Lou Thomas (right in image above, born on March 10, 1933 in Waterville, Maine), under the name John Target founded Target Studios with his lover Bob Lewis in 1974, after Jim French moved to Southern California and bought Thomas out of their partnership (1967-1974) in Colt Studio. Prior to the formation of Colt, Thomas used the name “Nick D’Arti” and operated Leather Photography from New York City.

Target was founded using the mailing lists of various physique-era companies that had recently folded, including Kris of Chicago (active 1953 to 1974, photographer Chuck Renslow and illustrator Dom Orejudos), Metecue Associates (active 1956-1972, Edward Quirk) and CTS Publishing (North Hollywood, California); as well as an introductory letter sent to Colt Studio customers. Target followed a business model similar to Colt Studio’s early days, selling photo sets of nude models and illustrations by Kris artist Dom Orejudos (aka Dom, Stephen, and Etienne).

The film archives of Kris Studio formed the core Thomas built upon to make his own material which he distributed as 8mm films, magazines, calendars, and videotapes. Thomas shared several models with Colt Studio. The aesthetic of Thomas’ work tended toward the “clone” look (hypermasculine, mustache, and leather), a trend in gay male culture throughout the 1970s.

During the late-1970s and early-1980s, Target also operated in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami (Florida) region. Thomas could fairly frequently be seen scouting for fresh talent at the Marlin Beach Hotel after the hotel became “the world’s largest gay resort”.

Target Studios folded in 1982, with the studio filing for bankruptcy in 1982. Rights to Target’s assets were sold to Le Salon Video under the Bullet Productions trademark. Long after Target ended operations, Target’s 8mm loops were collected into home video collections and sold as “Bulletpacs 1-9,” a nod to Falcon Studios’ successful “Falconpac” collections. Thomas died of AIDS-related complications on January 7, 1990 in New York City.

Thomas Studios was likely owned/operated as a west coast office by Lou Thomas, who frequently traveled to California. Thomas Studio was active in the early 1970s, the studio first operated as a private club and later sold black and white photographs of nude models with themes of bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), and sadomasochism (SM).