Playboy

"I remember this shot from a long time ago, when I was just a little boy," says founder of International Images Norman Solomon. "I remember looking at this girl and wishing I was a little older. We chose this image to represent a classic image of the PLAYBOY woman."

Mario Casilli, a PLAYBOY staff photographer from 1957 to 1980, photographed Victoria's pictorial. The day before this image was taken, she had learned she was pregnant. The child's father was emotionally abusive to Victoria, and the abuse was starting to become physical. "It wasn't by design that I wasn't smiling. It was a very sad time in my life," Victoria said in a 1997 online chat.

When International Images archivist Rasika Reichardt first visited Playboy's Chicago headquarters, she immediately noticed a large, 4'x6' print of this image hanging on the wall and wanted to include it in the collection. It was difficult to find the film for it in the company's vast 15-million-image archive, but it was eventually determined that it had been used as a prop in Tina Bockrath's May 1990 Playmate shoot with longtime PLAYBOY staffer Pompeo Posar.

Posar first shot a series of black-and-white images of Tina and made the prints literally larger-than-life, almost billboard-size. He then took color shots of Tina posing in front of the black-and-white portraits.

Tiffany Fallon is a dark-haired, light-eyed beauty in the tradition of Elizabeth Taylor or the classic pinup. For her December 2004 Playmate of the Month pictorial, the editors went for a Christmas mise-en-scene, with the bedecked tree and blazing fire, which is common for December layouts. For her Playmate of the Year pictorial, the editors played to Tiffany's retro looks, dressing her as naughty nurse, French maid and here, reclining on a crescent moon. "Tiffany was absolutely the perfect subject for this classic pinup approach to the Playmate of the Year feature," says Photo Director Gary Cole.

For the January 1999 issue, PLAYBOY asked Mugler to shoot his conception of "Sex Couture" for the magazine.

"I think this is one of the best, most interestingly composed shots I've ever seen," says Norman Solomon. "Everybody who sees it feels the same way. I think it's one of my favorites in the collection. The variety of models; it looks like they come from all over the world — each one of them is alluring in her own way."

This photo, taken by renowned pinup artist Earl Moran in the mid-1940s and purchased by PLAYBOY in the mid-1980s, was featured with other Moran images in a tribute to Marilyn Monroe written by Hugh Hefner.

"We were contacted by Jim Watters, the entertainment editor of Life magazine," said PLAYBOY Photo Director Gary Cole. "Jim knew Earl Moran's widow and she told him about these photos of Marilyn that were in Moran's files." Cole continues, "the photos were taken as artist reference. He never intended that the photos be published and he didn't consider himself a photographer. Buying all rights to these photos was probably one of the smarter moves that Playboy made during this period."

The model is April 1994 Playmate Becky DelosSantos. Her Centerfold was shot in an airplane hangar. Other images for her pictorial, including this one, which is an outtake, were shot in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

International Images founder Norman Solomon: "This has a very imposing quality to it. It's an in-your-face, amazing visual presentation of a woman. Here we have a perfectly shaped woman in full bloom. It's shot in a kind of casual atmosphere. And Arny is a great photographer."

For this image, "I wanted to find a way to make tights more appealing, as their reputation is long on comfort and warmth but short on sex appeal," said Newman. "I wanted a simple image and an elegant pose where the model was central to the composition. Reaching down to undo a suitcase puts the scene into a context. I also decided to keep the color palette within a restricted range and used a low camera angle to accentuate the length of the model's legs."

"I remember being astonished at the ease with which Jenny took to the pose," says Newman. "You try touching your toes when wearing five-inch stilettos. I know I can't."

This image of a young, confident Hugh Hefner escorting 10 Bunnies on an airport tarmac was the lead photo in a June 1965 article called "The Big Bunny Hop."

"We tried to use some shots that were particularly representative of the classic Playboy period," says International Images founder Norman Solomon. "This very happy shot of Hugh Hefner amongst the Bunnies is representative of the carefree mood of the early days, at the beginning of building this huge global brand."

"My pictures are escapist," David LaChapelle told American Photo magazine in 2001. "For me, pictures are fantasies. At the same time, they're a document of our time."

In July 2001, PLAYBOY asked La Chapelle to photograph "The Adventures of Pam," a surrealistic romp through the blonde superstar's life, from "Schoolgirl in Braces" to "Tool Time Girl" to "V.I.Penis," wherein Pam is straddling Marcus Schenkenberg, her hand resting on the hunky male model's crotch. The pictorial ends with "Cover Girl"