Playboy

Shannon's Playmate of the Month layout was photographed at her sister's farm in Canada. For her Playmate of the Year pictorial, PLAYBOY staffer Richard Fegley photographed her on a special set designed to look like her dream apartment. With the lighted floor contrasting with dark walls, the glossy black bathtub complementing the brass telephone stand and vase, PLAYBOY'S stylists created a sleek Art Deco set in the middle of the magazine's L.A. studio. Fegley played the shiny surfaces and dark corners to the hilt.

These outtakes are kept in the company's vast 12-million-image archive, though, and occasionally they crop up in Special Editions or retrospectives. Such is the case with this image of July 1973 Playmate Martha Smith, photographed by Pompeo Posar.

This image bears a striking resemblance to Titian's Danae, with its rich brocaded background and reclining model whose luminous skin seems almost lit from within. The bowl of fruit adds a classic message of fecundity as well.

1979 Playmate of the Year Monique St. Pierre gazes at glittering Los Angeles laid out before her. "As a matter of fact, I think this was shot on the roof of the old playboy office building on Sunset Boulevard," says Photo Director Gary Cole. From that vantage point, she is truly a queen of her kingdom. Her sheer, glittering dress outlines the landscape of her body as much as the streetlights blanket the hills and valleys of the city below.

To achieve this unique ambience, photographer Richard Fegley essentially did a double exposure — he set off a strobe in front and the allowed the background lights to burn in.

For her Moulin Rouge—themed pictorial, Playmate Heather Carolin channeled fellow redhead Nicole Kidman in a sumptuous setting made to look like a fin de siecle Parisian cabaret.

"Very few Centerfolds have been influenced by movies, but I did think of Moulin Rouge when putting this idea together, and the Playmate happened to look very good with red lipstick." said Marilyn Grabowski

The set was created in PLAYBOY'S Santa Monica studio, where most Playmate features are shot.

Longtime PLAYBOY staffer Stephen Wayda photographed Marketa. "Wayda is an extremely professional photographer with a great sense of light and the ability to relate to many different personalities, to bring out their individuality and their sexuality," says Cole.

For this photograph, his subject was Charis Boyle, a shapely Special Editions model who went on to become Miss February 2003. Gen photographed Charis on a New York City rooftop — one of his favorite settings — on a particularly cloudy afternoon.

"I love graphic lines. They are strong, simple and timeless," says Nishino. "Don't the lines complement her and her lingerie so well? Anybody watching?" he adds, coyly referring to his penchant for voyeuristic themes in his work.

For PLAYBOY's 45th anniversary issue, the editors chose Jaime Bergman to reign as its queen.

This image was shot outside a barn in a Hidden Valley ranch. "We did her shooting around the fact that she was a rodeo competitor. This particular shot was not anything planned. There's a lot of serendipity to my shootings," says Wayda. "When I go on location, I see something and I'll say Let's do this or let's go here or let's try this. I don't really know what we're going to do until the model comes out of makeup and I see where the sun is, relative to her."

The Milan-based Pirelli company, founded in 1872, specialized in rubber tires, but they also had another more intriguing specialty: The Pirelli Calendar. Famous for featuring beautiful women, often celebrities, (and less often, tires) the calendar also has an exclusive cachet—produced in limited quantities, it is given only to important Pirelli clients and celebrity VIPs.

The first calendar, produced in 1964, was shot by Robert Freeman in Majorca. Because of the oil crisis of the 1970s, Pirelli discontinued the calendar's production from 1974 to 1983. To celebrate its return in 1984, PLAYBOY published images from the 1984, 1985 and 1986 Pirelli Calendars, including this image by celebrity photographer Bert Stern.

"Pamwatch" was Anderson's fifth appearance in the magazine and was photographed in Saint-Tropez.

"Pamwatch" was Anderson’s first time in Saint-Tropez — afterward she declared it her "favorite place in the world. I want to move there."