Bruce Harry Bellas 1907 - 1974
AKA Bruce of LA ( Los Angeles )
American, Photographer

Born in Alliance, Nebraska, Bellas moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s where he started taking pictures at Venice's " Muscle Beach ." He quickly developed a self-created commercial outlet for his photo sets and is regarded as one of the truly great pioneers of physique photography. His career spanned the decades from 1940 to 1970. He died in Canada while vacationing with his favorite model.

Bruce of Los Angeles , Edited by Jim Dolinsky. Bruno Gmunder, 1990.

Bruce Bellas, The Naked Heartland: The Itinerant Photography of Bruce of Los Angeles , Edited by Robert Mainardi, Janssen Verlag, 2001).

Emmanuel Cooper, Male Bodies: A Photographic History of the Male Nude (Prestel Publishing: New York , 2004).

Holland Cotter, 50s Physique: Vintage Bodybuilding Photography, The New York Times ( July 27, 2001 ).