I kept noticing the same thing in old fitness photographs. Not the exercises. Not the equipment. The bodies.
An Irish physical culture instructor named F A Hornibrook shows up in Fiji around 1900, training local men. Different place, different lives, different contexts. And yet the bodies he presents look strangely familiar. Upright. Controlled. Strong but careful. If you stripped away the background, they could be almost anywhere.
This piece is about how that started happening. Not through big institutions or famous names, but through quiet repetition. The moment when bodies stopped looking local and started looking correct.
When Did Everyone Start Looking Like This?
I kept noticing the same thing in old fitness photographs. Not the exercises. Not the equipment. The bodies. An Irish physical culture instructor named F A Hornibrook shows up in Fiji around 1900, training local men. Different place, different lives, different contexts. And yet the bodies he presents look strangely familiar. Upright. Controlled. Strong but careful. If you stripped away the background, they could be almost anywhere. This piece is about how that started happening. Not through big institutions or famous names, but through quiet repetition. The moment when bodies stopped looking local and started looking correct.