Courtesy of Tomorrow’s Man
Back in the 80s and 90s, long after the sun went down, peddlers would set up an impromptu flea market with old possessions displayed on blankets set down on the sidewalks of Second Avenue in New York’s East Village. It was here, amid Puma tracksuits and fake Chanel jewels, that American artist Jack Pierson discovered Tomorrow’s Man – a men’s magazine from the 50s and 60s dedicated to bodybuilding.
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A self-described “short-attention-span collector,” Pierson was instantly intrigued and headed over to Physique Memorabilia – a purveyor of vintage male erotica that required patrons to buzz the door for entrance and have a specific reason for their visit. No casual browsers were allowed.
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“Between those two places I made a little collection of my own,” Pierson recalls. “They had resurfaced on my desk around the time that Robert Bywater asked me to do a book for him. His intention was for me to do a little book of my new photographs but at that moment I was feeling this kind of ephemera and magazine work I had been doing myself. I was also more interested in other artists than I was in myself.”
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Inspired, Pierson proposed an idea: a brand new version of Tomorrow’s Man that combined clips from vintage physique magazines with work from contemporary artists with cutting edge design. Images were cropped, collaged, and juxtaposed in an innovative way that suggested the unexpected and evocative associations one makes when perusing a thrift shop.
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