Timeline

Bill Dobbins had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time when modern bodybuilding for women first came on the scene in the late 1970s. As a bodybuilding fan and a sports fan in general, he recognized that women as well as men competed in sports such as track, gymnastics and basketball - and now they were involved in bodybuilding competition as well. Gradually Bill Dobbins began to specialize more and more in photographing these women - first bodybuilders, then fitness and figure women and now physique and bikini as well. As “Pumping Iron” author Charles Gaines pointed out, these bodies represented a totally new archetype in all of cultural history. Or, in Bill Dobbins words, “something new under the sun.” Bill Dobbins continues to follow his passion and keeps creating the very best images.

Art history is familiar with depictions of the male, athletic bodies - invented it seems by the ancient Greeks who had as their subjects a class of professional male athletes such as those in the Olympics. Artists like Michelangelo celebrated those bodies. Would he have been intriqued if aesthetically muscular women had existed in the 16th century? Would these subjects have become “Michelangelo’s women?”

Master painters will be inspired by Bill Dobbins photography and historians will tell stories how Bill Dobbins unveiled the strength, and passion possessed within the female form making his works our cultural treasure throughout centuries.