Russell S. Warner

Russell S. "Russ" Warner was born in 1917. Following World War II, Warner, who was a competitive bodybuilder, recognized the popularity of the male physique/fitness world and began photographing his friends. His early models included Mr. America Jack Thomas and Jack LaLanne, who he photographed in the nude, holding hands, in wrestling poses, and carrying each other aloft.

Warner is credited with inventing the indoor rim lighting technique, which cast models against a black background, with five floodlights surrounding them in order to highlight every area of the body. Bodybuilder and model Dave Draper recalls that Warner would often pause for 20 minutes between shots, allowing his model to find the perfect pose.

Though Warner was heterosexual, as were most of his models, he sold nude photographs of them via mail-order to gay customers into the late-1950s. From that point, he continued photographing bodybuilders for magazines for several decades. He died on October 21, 2004 at his home in Escondido, California, at the age of 87.

West Coast Models is a known alias used by Russ Warner to sell beefcake nude photography. In "straight" bodybuilding publications, he almost always used his own name.

George West is possibly an alias of Russ Warner. Little is known about West. The catalog sheets from the studio seem as though it either redistributed photographs from other studios; or it may have been another entity of Russ Warner. Some of the models and props appearing in West's photos are identifiable from Warner's works.

Sources:

• Draper, Dave. "Russ Warner -- A Most Unforgettable Character." DaveDraper.com, retrieved 28 Oct 2018.
• Moze, Gene. "Russ Warner: 1917-2004." Iron Man Magazine, April 2005.
• Tyler, Dick. West Coast Bodybuilding Scene: The Golden Era. Aptos, California: On Target Publications, 2011.