These
photos show Sandow is at his peak. Interesting that bodybuilders
today are so reluctant to pose in the nude for fear of being
labelled as sexual objects. 100 years ago these photographs
of a nude Sandow were as natural as seeing the great Roman
and Greek sculptures of athletes in fine art museums all
over the world. It must be kept in mind, however, that in
his "muscle display performances" in the theater,
Sandow would not think of posing as he did in these iimages.
Sandow generally wore leopard skin trunks or his wrestling
suit. It was also true that Sandow would not pose with frontal
nudity unless he wore a "fig leaf" (one possible
exception were the photos made when he posed for the famous
full-body cast in London).
