Pin-ups (e)
In an era when television had not yet come to dominate and magazines were flourishing, glamour photography was an important market for photographers and an established force in the world of photojournalism.
By Edward Quinn
When I started out as a photographer in the early 1950s, pictures of people-in-the-news were the most sought-after by the press. But there was also a big market for glamour photos and the editors knew exactly what kind of pictures they wanted. The American National Enquirer, for example, sent me copies of pictures they had used and wrote: "As you can see, we favour the bikini swimming costume and the type of figure that fills it out well." Articles appeared in trade journals explaining how to get the best pin-up pictures. They recommended choosing the girl who was best suited to the project from the agencies' model lists. They gave advice on what props to bring to make a more vibrant image, any bits and bobs to break up the visually boring sand or a guitar to add a special touch to the image. Certain natural elements on a harbour, an anchor or a fishing net for example, should be used as suggestive elements. The models should have lacquered down hair or let it blow freely in the wind. A make-up kit should be kept ready in case the make-up needs to be improved. Pancake N25 from Max Factor is very suitable for black and white photos, while the 3N can be used for colour photos... All this well-intentioned advice didn't help me much, because most of my shoots were improvised. Back then, glamour or pin-up photos were part of a photographer's routine. Pretty women were still happy when their picture was published in a newspaper or magazine, but it wasn't possible to choose models from a list. There were no modelling agencies on the Côte d'Azur, so I had to find the attractive girls myself.
The most obvious place was, of course, the beach. Whenever I saw a girl who was likely to be photographed well, I simply approached her and asked politely if she would allow herself to be photographed. They usually agreed readily, but you didn't have long to look for a suitable background or ask them to change their hairstyle or costume. I had to make the best of the given situation. I also followed the beauty contests that often took place on the Riviera, where the "Reine de la Côte d'Azur", the "Reine de Nice" and other queens were chosen. If the girls were really pretty, I tried to photograph them again on another day. I always looked for women with a natural smile, not the ones with the "say cheese" smile.
I had the opportunity to meet an extraordinary girl, Greta from Denmark. She had come to Nice for a holiday. I noticed her on a walk along the Promenade des Anglais. With a series of photos of Greta, I managed to break into the magazine cover market. Illustrated, one of the big magazines in England, used a cover and a series of photos and even organised a readers' competition to choose the picture with the most popular pose.
I have photographed a large number of very attractive women; none of them were professional models. Many became film actresses, others married famous men - the American model Gregg Sherwood married the car manufacturer Horace Dodge; the beauty queen Myriam Bru married the German actor Horst Buchholz; the French fashion model Eliette Mouret became the wife of the conductor Herbert von Karajan. Glamour photography could be quite useful - you would often get a few pictures of a pretty girl spotted on the beach after trying in vain to find a news personality of interest to the press.
When I was looking for photo material for a film project about pin-ups, I was amazed to discover that most of the pictures I had taken at the beginning of the 1950s could still have been taken in the same way today, 40 years later. The swimming costumes or beach dresses, the hairstyle, the make-up - nothing seems to differ from today's fashion. Things were different 50 years earlier: of course the beaches have changed - secluded spots on the Côte d'Azur have become rare. If you think back to photos of young ladies taken at a fashionable summer resort at the beginning of the 19th century, the difference to the girls I photographed in the 1950s seems enormous. You can see pictures of practically fully clothed ladies carrying a pretty parasol and dipping their feet in the sea on the shore. No comparison with the pictures from the fifties.