Nude Dancers

It's not every day that you run across something like this.  If the photographer was going for porn, he clearly missed the mark.  These three 4x5 transparencies have to be photos of some sort of performance.  But what kind?  Nude ballet, modern dance, Oh! Calcutta?  I once worked with the brother of a woman who was in Oh! Calcutta.  I won't mention her name.  Things that seem reasonable at twenty can be embarrassing at fifty.

Living Room Nude

Once again, It's time to embarrass grandma.  As I've noted many times before, I spent decades working in photo labs.  In all the years I printed black & white photos, I never had a weak go by that I didn't print "personal" photos.  There were lots of amateur pin-ups, naked wives and girlfriends, some naked men, the occasional shot of people having sex, and a surprisingly large amount of cross dressing.  Now, I started printing well after the invention of Polaroid instant photography, worked well into the digital age, and pretty much specialized in black & white.  All things considered, I've come to the conclusion that there are hundreds of millions of such photos floating around out there.  So why are they so hard to find?   My theory is that parents die, their kids find that special envelope of images, and it's "Oh my God!  It's naked mom.  Why is dad wearing that designer dress?  They're doing what?"  Those photos don't end up in the family archive, they get, quickly, fed into the shredder.  From my stand point, that's a terrible thing.

Naughty Biddy

How did Biddy serve the tomatoes undressed?  Why did Biddy serve the tomatoes undressed?  Hard to believe that this was once considered risque.  No publisher listed or any captions other than the one seen on the bottom right.

I Want What I Want...

...When I Want it.  I'm not even going to try and make out what's written on the back of this card.  It's just too faded.  I'd criticize the writer for not using a more permanent ink, but then again, the writer probably assumed that this card would be thrown away fairly quickly.  I wonder just how racy this was when it was purchased.

Fanny Takes It Off

As I've noted before, I spent decades working in photo labs and I never had a week go by where I didn't print at least one amateur pin-up, naked wife or girl friend, nude man, people having sex or a surprisingly large amount of cross dressing. People like to play, they like to take pictures, and they like to pass them around. It's human nature, and by the look of these two photos, it's been that way for along time. The name "Fanny" is written on the back of each print.

Home Style Temptress

As I've noted before, when I worked at the photo lab I never had a week go by where I didn't print some sort of amateur adult picture. There were a lot of home made pin-ups, nude wives and girlfriends, the occasional naked man, couples having sex, and for reasons I've never understood, lots and lots of cross dressing. These are pretty mild, but then they were printed in "JAN 63."

Glass Negative Nudes

I've got to find the money to set up my darkroom. Some more images from back in the day when I was a professional photo printer. I made these from a couple of glass negatives that I picked up at an antique store. The one model seems to be channeling Louise Brooks, which gives a date from late teens to late twenties.

French Postcard One More Time

Yet another French postcard. 19th century porn, tame now.

Don Frooks, Adult Photographer

I tried, but I wasn't able to run down anything on Don Frooks. He seems to have been a freelance photographer working the men's magazine market in the period from, what we would now think of as innocent pin-up imagery, to the more explicit Playboy and then Penthouse type of photo. The "PROOF PLEASE RETURN" marking on the front of several of these images was a common method photographers used to protect their work. In theory it would prevent purchasers from using the photographer's image without payment. In reality it wasn't much of a deterrent. A copy neg, a bit of airbrushing, and some pulp magazine publisher could have put Don's pictures in a regional magazine, not distributed in his home area, and he would have been none the wiser. Stamped on the back, "MAY 23, 1956 DON FROOKS FL.8-4554." Except for the one photo of the different woman, "FEB 25, 1959 DON FROOKS FL.8-4554." These were purchased from a dealer in Carthage, Mississippi, so Don Frooks could have been a southern photographer, but things do move about the country, so the dealers location may not be an indication of where he was from. There were three other photos in this collection that I may post one day. Those were taken much latter, probably in the late sixties to early eighties and at least two of them would qualify as true pornography. I'm not bothered by the nudity, but I'm not sure I want to risk problems with the blog host, until I've been able to find other examples of imagery of an explicit nature on Blogspot. Added: I've done a bit of research into Blogspot policies, and I've decided not to post the last three Don Frooks images. I've put a couple of nudes up on this blog, but the latter images from Frooks are pornographic, and while I don't think pornography, at least images made by and for adults, should be illegal, I understand that Blogspot may not wish to host such images. Too, there is always a dilemma about putting up such images. The two women and one man who posed for those three shots were pretty young, they are all very likely still alive, and may look upon that bit of their past as an embarrassing mistake, and who in the pre-digital universe never thought that their pictures would one day turn up for everyone on the planet with computer access, to see.

Yet Another French Postcard

I found this old, framed French postcard in a thrift shop. One of my fellow employees at the photo lab where I was working at that time was teaching himself photo shop, and so I let him practice his digital correction skills with this image. Now, I did have to correct some of his work the old fashioned way, with a paint brush and spot tone, but by and large, the negatives I had made gave me a nice, black & white print. Also done the old fashioned way, with an enlarger and chemistry.

Wendy Summers, Stripper by Gene Laverne

Technically this is not a photograph, but a halftone. A halftone is an image made by a series of dots, varying in either size or distance from each other to create the illusion of an image. I used to make halftone negatives at the photo lab where I worked, all the time. They were used primarily for newspaper advertisements. Gene Laverne was a photographer from Buffalo, New York who specialized in glamour, and theatrical photography, was well known for his portraits of strippers. This image is captioned, "WENDY SUMMERS, BALTIMORE" I did a web search for Wendy Summers, and couldn't find anything about this lady.

Pocket Pin-Ups

Very small pin-up pictures. All 3x4.5 inches.

Professional or Amateur?

As I've noted in some earlier posts, I spent years working in photo labs, and I don't think I ever had a weak go by without printing some sort of amateur eroticism. Even though I started printing black & white photos well after the invention of the Polaroid camera, and worked well into the digital age, there was still a lot of amateur nudes, pictures of people having sex, and a surprisingly large number of cross dressing photos to print. When I look at this collection, I wonder whether this woman was a professional model or if she was the photographers girlfriend. The three posed pictures look like the sort of thing that could be bought from under the counter at a lot of news stands. The one image where she is getting undressed looks like a girl friend picture.

Pin-up Slides

Two wonderful 35mm slides from the 1950's of a pin-up model.

Another French Postcard

I really should have published this real French Postcard with the last one (published 10/6/09) but I forgot that I had two of them. Some time in the near future, I'll be putting up a couple that I've hand printed from glass negatives. Anyway, this is the real deal, a period postcard, not a modern reproduction.

A French Postcard

A real French postcard, not a modern day, screened reproduction. Printed on photo paper, probably smuggled into the United States.

Swingers in the Seventies

Polaroids were perfect for the swinging seventies. I really went back and forth about putting these two images up. More than likely these two women are about my age, and still alive.

You Too Can Photograph Beautiful Models

Lesson I INTRODUCTION TO ART PHOTOGRAPHY Good art photography is about one-half technical and one-half imaginative. Any good photographer, well trained in darkroom and camera techniques will find the first half quite simple. The second half is considerably more difficult. There are fine points that the photographer must master in order to successfully produce quality art photos. They are posing, lighting, and creative imagination. Post marked Feb. 14, 1955 from Washington, D.C. and sent to Dr. Alfred Thelin, Jr. 208 third St., N.W., Albuquerque, New Mexico from the National Institute of Art Photography, included are a couple of sample photos, and a lesson plan for home nude photography.

Jane Marshall, Stripper

With all of the interest in classic burlesque out there; in a world were many nice, middle class, well educated young ladies are putting on pasties and joining burlesque troupes, you'd think I'd be able to find some biographical information on Jane Marshall. Not so. Identified by name, with type in the border, that I've cropped for the scan. Stamped on the back, "WILL GROFF THEATRICAL AGENCY 211 S. MARSHALL ST. YORK, PENNSYLVANIA." Jane Marshall and Marshall Street, I'm guessing, is just a coincidence.

Topless From the Fifities

These used to be sold from under the counter at news stands all over the United States. This was one of the things that passed as adult fare before the age of Playboy. Not very explicit by the standards of today, or for that matter the standards of the fifties. It wasn't so openly sold, but there was plenty pornography was out there.