Bill Dobbins (born 1943) is an American
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
who specializes in
bodybuilding
Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...
, physique and
fitness photography. In particular, Dobbins is well known for his work in photographing
female bodybuilders and has published two books of images on the subject, ''The Women''
and ''Modern Amazons''.
Dobbins was associated with
Ben Weider and bodybuilding organizations such as the
IFBB and
NPC.
Dobbins is also an author and writer for physique magazines. He has collaborated with
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
on several books, including ''Arnold's Bodybuilding For Men''
and ''The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding''.
Career and history
After working in Europe, predominantly in the music industry, Dobbins returned to America to work as a radio producer, primarily at
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...
and
WABC in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He eventually moved to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
where he became involved with the original
Gold's Gym. During this period Dobbins met several male bodybuilders, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, and undertook promotional work for the gym. This attracted the attention of
Joe Weider, and Dobbins began writing for ''
Muscle & Fitness
''Muscle & Fitness'' is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine founded in 1935 by Canadian entrepreneur Joe Weider. It was originally published under the title ''Your Physique'', before being renamed to ''Muscle Builder'' in 1954, and acq ...
'', eventually being made a founding editor of ''
Flex
Flex or FLEX may refer to:
Computing
* Flex (language), developed by Alan Kay
* FLEX (operating system), a single-tasking operating system for the Motorola 6800
* FlexOS, an operating system developed by Digital Research
* FLEX (protocol), a comm ...
'' magazine.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobbins, Bill
American photographers
Physique photographers
Living people
1943 births