BUILT
Photography by Rob Lewine
BUILT, THE BOOK THAT NEVER WAS.
PHOTOGRAPHER ROB LEWINE SHARES HIS STORY OF A JOURNEY INTO THE COUNTERCULTURE OF FEMALE BODYBUILDING (PRE STEROIDS) AND THE MAKING OF THE BOOK BUILT THAT NEVER PUBLISHED.
HERE IS HIS STORY AND NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED IMAGES.
WORDS AND PICTURES BY ROB LEWINE:
I produced BUILT: IMAGES OF WOMEN BODYBUILDERS under contract to Bantam Books, with the journalist Rochelle Reed as co-author. I’d seen an interview with several women bodybuilders and was intrigued that women had begun bulking themselves up for competition.
From 1979 into 1982, Rochelle and I traveled the country, immersing ourselves, for better or worse, in this rapidly emerging subculture. It was a wild ride into a world populated by earnest strivers, dreamers, hangers-on, and two brothers in late middle age -- publishers of fitness magazines, purveyors of fitness equipment and supplements -- who controlled the scene, indirectly or otherwise influencing who would win the competitions.
BUILT is in three sections - profiles of six leading bodybuilders; event coverage; and a portfolio of large- and medium-format color portraits of the competitors, taken on location in a portable studio.
Bantam allowed me to hire an art director and supervise the design; the book was delivered in camera-ready condition. By then there was new management. Our editor, Brad Miner, was a strong advocate for publication; still, the newly installed group argued for six months over whether or not to publish, ultimately deciding against it. Bantam had never really understood the project: at a lunch meeting in New York, as our field work was winding down, one of the higher-ups had asked us if BUILT was an exercise book.
Uh...no. It’s a book of photographs with gently sardonic commentary on the world of women’s bodybuilding, up until the time when steroids began to make an appearance, to horrific effect. The images I like best were taken backstage at the competitions. I used lag-shutter technique, combining strobe light with a slow shutter speed (“lagging” behind the flash) to record ambient light, which introduces motion effects.
All images courtesy of ©Rob Lewine
very laboratory