"Athleticism and eroticism are two sides of the same coin. The original Olympics in 776BC were 
held in the nude."
"Naked doesn't always mean erotic. Erotic doesn't always mean naked."
"Posing nude is an issue of choice...you choose to expose and you choose to view."
"Many women on She Muscle explore/expose their sexuality through strength and dominance; not weakness and submission."
Just a few select quotes from a man who has spent a lifetime photographing female athletes in a very raw unashamedly erotic way.
The man? Brian Moss ...and the subject under discussion today? The artistic and innovative tribute to female muscle known as ‘She Muscle'-- website that has gained both notoriety and admiration over the years. I recently managed to pull Brian away from the arduous task of filming naked women and asked him to talk about his now legendary website!
First of all Brian, how would you describe the ‘She-Muscle' site.....
"Well to me it's female muscle erotica... and that can be anything from a figure or fitness girl or someone who has just started working out, to a Ms Olympia. As you know, people enjoy different things and enjoy different aesthetics so, therefore, I'm just open to fit and muscular women. It is erotic, there is no doubt about that; then again, when you look at muscle and women how can you separate it from being erotic, even if it's female bodybuilders on stage...any time you get people on stage showing their bodies (women and men) you
can't deny that it's erotic!"
What was the original idea behind the site?
"The thought of shooting women in a sexy, erotic, and provocative way preceded the whole thought of a site because this goes back over ten years. At that time I knew nothing about the internet and I knew nothing about web sites, I was just taking photos of women. Then it dawned upon me as the web started to show itself and people had web sites that I should try it.
Now, in the beginning, I was shooting film and the very first photos of mine that made it to the web were being shot on film. Today, I can't even imagine doing that because it's all digital now of course, which just makes the work so much easier. I can remember back in the day shooting film, processing it, getting a contact sheet, editing it and renting the darkroom space and going to print. I always promised the girls prints, that was part of the whole deal, so I would go and make prints and would have to ship the prints to the girls...it was a lot of work back then. Now you can even take a photograph with your phone and upload it to your website if you want..."
How did you present the concept of the site to the women?
"Well in the beginning there wasn't even a site, the first girls I started photographing were basically girls I was dating or strippers. Girls that were sexy but not necessarily fit women. Then when I showed my photos to other girls they sort of said ‘wow, I want to be photographed like that!' and that is how it evolved. I think the women were tired of just being shiny happy people in muscle photographs and I presented them with something different."
The site has recently been updated; can you tell us how the ‘new' She Muscle differs from its previous incarnation?
"It is volume of content and the voice of the site. The early incarnation of She Muscle was really a static site....I did my shoots, I uploaded my imagery to my web master and then once a week they would upload the photos to the site. Now I can take a photo right now and upload it and I can speak, I can write, so the site has my voice. In terms of volume of content, I do something different on the site I would say every day whereas in the beginning it was once a week, there was no text, no voice, no writing...so now it is radically 
different."
Do you get approached by women who want to be on the site or do you look for suitable candidates yourself?
"Both...I get e mails from women asking if I would shoot them for She Muscle and then if I am on the Internet or at the Arnold Expo and I see someone who looks great I will approach them and tell them that I would love to shoot them for the site."
How would you answer accusations that it is simply a ‘porn site'?
"Well, we could get into a whole argument about what porn is; I mean that is something that the Supreme Court can't even decide. I mean you could argue that ‘Victoria's Secret' is porn. How do you define porn? I mean is it something that people masturbate too? Well, guess what, almost anything can be called porn in that case. Porn has nothing to do with explicit or non explicit because people can get off looking at anything! Things that have little to do with nudity. People can get off looking at feet for god's sake! So who's to say what is porn? To me, as a photographer, porn is disposable imagery. So you just shoot a photograph of whatever, explicit or not, and it is disposable, meaning you never want to come back to that image to look at it again. Not that it's a bad thing though, I am not anti-porn, it's just that when I shoot I don't think my images are disposable; people come back and look at them again.
"When I first started shooting erotica I let go of that worry about what people would think of my imagery."
What are your plans for the future of the site?
"Just really to do more of what I am doing. I want to add more video, more life sized photos and I really want to get into more writing. I want more voices on the site. I want women to write on the site as well...I would love to host blogs. I just really want it to be a voice, or many voices, in addition to what people come to the site for primarily, which is to see provocative imagery."
And I see you also have ‘She Muscle Live'.....
"Yeah, ‘She Muscle Live' is a cam site and it is sort of a natural extension to ‘She Muscle'. I mean obviously ‘She Muscle' is a static site you can't really interact with it other than leaving comments but on a cam site it's live so you can interact with it. So that is like a natural extension where fans can interact with their favorite models."
Out of all the photo shoots that you have done for ‘She Muscle' what would you say was your most memorable one?
"They have all been pretty memorable but I would say probably the early ones stand out the most because at that point I hadn't done hundreds of shoots and I think you're highly impressionable when you first start. One I can think of from that time was with Sharon Bruneau. We were down in LA and in an area that was known for hotel/motels that sort of thing and we found this really hardcore motel somewhere in Santa Monica. Now you kind of have to sneak into these places because they don't obviously want somebody coming in there with a camera because who knows what people are doing in those rooms! So we kind of snuck in an she did this whole thing where she put her hair in curlers and was painting her toenails and we got a bottle of whisky as a prop...It was just silly and fun and we really got some great stuff. So that was definitely a memorable shoot and it was probably the most hardcore motel I have ever shot in...and of course it was Sharon Bruneau my god!"
Quite a story I am sure you'll agree!
Now... in the interest of equality, I started off this article with a few quotes from Brian on the subject of female erotica so I think it is only fair to round things up with quotes from a few of the women Brian has shot over the years, as they recall their experience of working with him on the ‘She Muscle' site.....
AMBER DE LUCA
"I began working with Brian in 2003. I had never done any erotic work in front of a camera...nudes yes, erotic no. He immediately made me feel comfortable...as if he wasn't even there! Great artists know how to make models relax and bring out the best in them. This is why I enjoy shooting with Brian so much. He knows how to draw animal energy out of women in a very tasteful manner. Bravo Brian!"
CASSANDRA FLOYD
"I have worked with Brain Moss since 2003 off and on. He is always a pleasure to work with. All he has to do is say what scenario he wishes to shoot and he begins clicking endlessly with his camera. He never has to tell me what poses he wants, after doing so many shoots I kind of get a feel as to what he wants and let my mind go to work. We have a great chemistry while shooting so it shows on camera and in the finished product."
ROXANNE EDWARDS
"Working with Brian was like going back to the future. With one step through his garage threshold you transplant your 21st Century self into the 70's where his alter to olde school bodybuilding exists, complete with the original floor from ‘Better Bodies' and accessories from his youth...when bodybuilding was in its infancy. You get a glimpse of what once was...that gave birth to what is!"
To check it out for yourself go to www.shemuscle.com you won't be disappointed!
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