Glamour photography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glamour photography is the photographing of a model to emphasize the subject, instead of the fashions or products endorsed.
Standards of glamour photography have changed over time, reflecting changes in social morals. For example, in the early 1920s, USA photographers like Ruth Harriet Louise photographed celebrities to glamourise their stature. During World War II pin-up pictures of scantily clad movie stars were extremely popular among US servicemen. However, until the 1950s, the use of glamour photography in advertising or men’s magazines was highly controversial or even illegal. Magazines featuring glamour photography were usually marketed as "art magazines” or “health magazines”.
Playboy was instrumental in changing the world of glamour photography as the first magazine that focused on nude models and was targeted at the mainstream consumer. In December 1953, Hugh Hefner published the first edition of Playboy with Marilyn Monroe on the cover and nude photos of Monroe on the inside. Marilyn's star status and charming personality helped to diminish the public outcry. When asked what she had on during the photoshoot, she replied "the radio." After Playboy broke through, many magazines followed and this was instrumental in opening the market for the introduction of glamour photography into modern society. Today, softcore nude photographs of models appear in publications such as Perfect 10 or tabloid newspapers such as Britain's The Sun's Page 3.
Recently several popular glamour magazines known as lad mags are reversing the trend by emphasizing glamour while showing less nudity, in favor of implied (covered) nudity or toplessness such as the handbra technique. Examples include Maxim, which launched in 1995 and FHM (For Him Magazine) in 1994.
