Caruso: Photographic Perfection

A special thank you to legendary photographer Jimmy Caruso for the unique, priceless photos of Arnold that appear in this issue. Jimmy is not only a consummate photo artist but also without peer in his ability to get the most out of every pose with his attention to detail.

Jimmy was instrumental in the creation and perfection of Arnold’s signature poses. To this day no one has displayed the twisting back pose as Arnold has. Some may show more muscle, but the elegance and flawless placement from Arnold’s toes to his head are very much the work of Caruso. Add to that the fact that Arnold is a good student. He understood that Jimmy’s talent was much more than just the ability to create a technically perfect photograph—he was a teacher as well. I saw other bodybuilders at those sessions who were reluctant to take Jimmy’s direction and never learned from him. Their attitude was, I’m the champ; who is he to tell me what to do?

That, of course, is one of the differences between Arnold and most bodybuilders—he immediately grasped that he could become better by listening to Jimmy. Not only that, but he acted on Jimmy’s coaching by practicing posing to perfection. You never saw Arnold hit a pose that wasn’t impeccably executed. If a pose wasn’t right for him, he simply didn’t do it.

I have shot Arnold many times. His posing was like the grooved swing of a pro golfer. Anyone who ever shot Arnold owes a part of the images that he or she created to the posing foundation that Jimmy Caruso built.

I had the privilege of being present at one of Jimmy’s classic studio sessions that took place in the early ’70s in New York after an Olympia contest. At the time I was a freelance photographer who shot mostly contests and the occasional outdoor session; I did not have a studio at the time. In my competition days—the late ’60s—I won a couple of best-poser trophies, so, naturally, I thought I knew something about posing. Sitting next to Jimmy as he orchestrated each pose was a revelation. While he used the finest photo and lighting equipment, those were just tools that recorded his vision. My strongest memory of watching him work that day is that Jimmy was the captain of the ship.

In 2002 IRON MAN awarded Jimmy the Art Zeller Award for Artistic Excellence. That was a privilege for me, as it honored both Art Zeller and Jimmy Caruso for their lifelong pursuits of the perfect image. IM