Eye on the Guy

Alan B. Stone: astute businessman, quiet suburbanite, and master of the homoerotic pin-up. Eye on the Guy: Alan B. Stone & the Age of Beefcake explores the little-known world of Montreal’s physique photography scene, a distinct gay subculture that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, through the life and work of one of its most creative figures.

Operating under the social radar of post-war Canada, Stone produced thousands of images of men; from Montreal bodybuilders to Pacific coast fishermen, from rodeo cowboys to the construction workers who built Expo 67.

Like his American contemporary, physique photographer Bob Mizer, Alan B. Stone was a cultural pioneer. Before the first wave of gay liberation, and long before Calvin Klein’s poster boys marched into public view, Stone was taking hundreds of erotic photos of men and running an international mail-order business from his Montreal basement. Philip Lewis and Jean-Francois Monette’s documentary is a fascinating and fitting tribute to Alan B. Stone, pioneer of beefcake photography.