During the summer of 1982 I was hard at work trying to build my gym, Better Bodies, in hopes of opening that September. My partner, Mike Alalof, had met a local girl who was working as a trainer at a local health spa in midtown Manhattan. He thought she would be a great first hire for us, as we needed a female trainer. After all how could we live up to our radical tag line “Better Bodies, Manhattan’s First Serious Bodybuilding Gym for Women” if we didn’t have a woman on staff?. Nobody had ever welcomed women into a hardcore environment the way we were about to. It sounds quaint now, but it was virtually unheard of in 1982. Mike had her stop by one afternoon, and that was it, none of us ever looked back. She picked up a paint brush and jumped right in. Her name was Gladys Portugues.

If you are not familiar with Gladys, you should be. Who could have known the heights that she would climb from such a simple start. In a matter of just a few years she was a superstar in the nascent sport of women’s bodybuilding. In fact, in 1985, she graced the cover of Muscle & Fitness, Shape and Flex magazines. Incredible. That has never been done since, and never will. Together we were active participants in the heady days of women’s bodybuilding. Perhaps, never quite aware at the time of the importance of many of those moments. How I wish I had a video of Gladys guest posing, as an amateur, at George Snyder’s 1983 Ms. Olympia. She performed with three break dancers, no one had ever seen those two worlds come together before. In just one year from that night, she would be in the Ms Olympia, and take home an impressive 7th place.

I have spent over half of my life in the world of women and weights. My perspective is unique, one not shared by many. I now realize that it was those early years that helped formulate me as a relevant photographer today. I am now over a decade removed from being a gym owner. The deeper I get into my “new” life as a photographer the more I realize that my “old” life as a gym owner is what created my point of view as a photographer.

I have begun to explore my archive of photographs and video’s from my early years as a gym owner. As I uncover moments from these early days, whether from an old vhs tape, snapshots, polaroids or flyers, I will post them here on Shemuscle, finally, connecting the dots.

-Brian Moss