An image from a recently reassembled, wrestling photo set, produced by the British, vintage, Royale Studio in 1959. It shows the models Brian Lamprill (top) and Tibor Urgay grappling in various poses contrived to avoid frontal exposure and suggestive contact. This one looks a bit of a stalemate!
Royale Studio and it's later incarnation, Hussar Studio, had a brief existence from 1957-63 but reputedly bore the brunt of the arbitrary actions by the British authorities to suppress any form of homosexual expression. They were not the only studio to produce images like this and never featured explicit frontal shots but, uniquely amongst British Studios of the time, they produced photo sets showing men dressed or partly dressed in British military uniforms (tailored to fit tightly) and often involving in corporal punishment scenarios. This seems to have attracted special attention from the Police who confiscated offending material at whim.
This image is taken from the new Royale Studio Open Archive which is attempting to assemble as complete a collection as possible of the Studio's images.
This particular set is No 37, Urgay v Lamprill
