How to photograph your wife or girlfriend – nude
Lessons from a former, part-time Playboy photographer
Dennis F. Stevens moved
to San Francisco in early 1958 and wrote comedy material for several night club
comedians – including Lenny Bruce, Ronnie Schell, Jackie Gayle and Mort
Sahl. He worked as a part-time
missile-tracking cinematographer for Lockheed, at nearby Sunnyvale, and as a
contract photographer for Playboy Magazine.
The Playboy assignments lasted on an assignment-by-assignment basis,
until the late '90s.
The missile tracking
platform Stevens operated was huge and he has said that it was a thrill every
time he mounted the platform and seated myself in the control seat – surrounded
by two separate, 35mm motion picture camera systems; each of the magazines with
1,000 foot loads, (approximately 9 ½ minutes of film going through the aperture
at 90 feet per minute). Powered by its
own internal gas powered 40 amp generator, It was the two large lenses that
gave the platform its massive look; one a 500mm and the other 2,500mm; but each
with 2X extenders.
Stevens’ job was to
control the tracking for the big lens cameras.
Like the ball turret gunner on a WWII B-17, his feet controlled the left
– right movement and his hands on the joy stick controlled the up and down
movements. On the joy stick was the
trigger that started and stopped the cameras.
All he had to do was keep the gun sight steadily on the target.
The entire system was
designed to be taken apart and loaded onto a 10 wheeler for transportation, and
then reassembled at the site. It was
often flown aboard a cargo plane – and just as often towed on a trailer behind
a pickup.
Stevens’ leisure time
during this period was spent racing his Porsche Carrera.
As a member of the
Sports Car Club of America, Stevens raced as an amateur on Saturdays while the
professionals like Dan Gurney and Sterling Moss raced on Sunday. Although his racing strategy was to complete
the race with as few dents in his Porsche Carrera as possible, he did end up
winning a few. Placing first in Las
Vegas during May’s 1960 Helldorado Week was probably his most satisfying.
In San Francisco’s
North Beach, writing his own material, Stevens began appearing as the warm-up
comedian at the then iconic cellar night club, Purple Onion, managed by Berry
Drew – a Barrymore.
It was during this
period that Stevens began photographing semi nude military wives and
girlfriends wishing to send such photos to their husbands serving
overseas. It was not surprising when
Stevens was contacted by Playboy Magazine and offered the job of photographing
young women from northern California who had submitted self photographs to
Playboy in hopes of being considered Centerfold material. Stevens’ job was to do a professional shoot
of these potential Playboy models to bring out and determine their attributes
for appearing in the magazine.
As the same time,
Stevens also was active as an advertising print and portrait photographer –
even dabbling for awhile in so called baby photography, popular at the
time.
CAREER AS A PLAYBOY PHOTOGRAPHER
In the late 1950s,
‘60s and ‘70s, although only working part-time for Playboy, Dennis F. Stevens
helped shape the Playboy rules for photographing the nude bodies of attractive
women. For instance, as a photographer
you could not simply photograph a nude woman standing up and facing you, arms
at her side. Models had to be properly posed
– hopefully in exotic environments. Below
are some standard poses Stevens used.
Remember, lighting is everything.
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The above photos DID
appear in Playboy. Below are some of
Stevens’ photos that for some reason or another were rejected by Playboy (i.e.)
too old, too young, too fat, boobs too big, boobs too small, boobs failed the
pencil test, etc. What is the pencil test, you ask? Answer: You lift up one of your breasts and place a
pencil beneath it. If the pencil stays
in place, you’ve failed the famous Playboy pencil test.
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BUSH, LANDING STRIP, OR SHAVED
At Playboy there was
a lot of controversy over women’s pubic hair.
In the 1960s such photos of pubic hair were known as beaver shots. Later they were merely called bush shots. Sometime in the early 1980s woman began to
shave or trim their pubic hair with regularity.
A popular trim was a two – to two and- a-half inch wide strip of thick
bush known as a landing strip.
Below are some photos
of Playboy models Stevens photographed which are sporting a full bush or landing strip. Once again,
remember, lighting is everything.
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Below are some photos
of Playboy models Stevens photographed which are shaven.
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EXOTIC BODY SHOTS
Below are exotic body
shots taken by Dennis F. Stevens – over the years; one or two may have been
published in Playboy, most were not.
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NICOLE KELLEY
The model Dennis F.
Stevens photographed which had the most appearances in Playboy Magazine’s
pictorial section was Nicole Kelley.
Stevens first
met Nicole around 1978 when she was living with her parents in Brentwood and
starting her first year at UCLA. Off
and on since the late 1950s Stevens had worked as a photographer for Playboy
Magazine photographing attractive young women for the pictorial section of the
magazine. Nicole was beautiful and soon
became a fan favorite.
In her
second year at UCLA – and with her seminude pictures gracing the pages of Playboy,
Stevens found her a part-time job in the Warner Bros. legal department as a paralegal. She graduated from UCLA in only three years
(consistently on the Dean’s list). After
graduation, Nicole continued working for Warner Bros. but now full time in the
publicity and distribution departments.
And, of course, Stevens continued photographing her for Playboy.
Then, in
1994, after 16 years Nicole decided she was getting a little long in the tooth
to continue being photographed in the nude and put an end to her career as seminude
model. She went to work for Simon &
Schuster in Manhattan, in a building located just across the street from the Fox
News Channel. Nicole has since retired
and lives in her townhouse in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, next to Riverside
Park.
Below are some photographs
Dennis F. Stevens took of Nicole Kelley specifically for Playboy; which were
published. Some are snapshots taken for
other purposes. Although she made good
money from Playboy, Nicole was never a centerfold.
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Few, if any photos of
Nicole Kelley submitted by Stevens were ever rejected by Playboy – but the
following are some that were – for whatever reason.
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VERONIK
Veronik was not a
model and never posed for Playboy. She
was the French interceptor and production assistant on the 1978 TV shoot of several
major French wineries (including Lafite, Mouton, Margaux, La Tours, & Haut
Brion) Stevens directed and (together with the iconic food and wine critic,
Robert Lawrence Balzer) wrote the TV commercials – aimed for the Far East and
Australasia markets. However, in
exchange for copies of the photos, Veronik encouraged Stevens take candid
photos of her in seminude poses.
Stevens did his best to keep the relationship on a professional
basis.
Today, 2019, at 61
years of age, Veronik told Stevens she looks back fondly on how she looked 41
years ago. Here are some examples.
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MILITARY WIVES & GIRLFRIENDS
In the late 1950s,
Stevens teamed with another San Francisco photographer and opened a San
Francisco, North Beach studio to take photographs of seminude wives and
girlfriends of military personnel – to send to their husbands and significant
others stationed overseas. Here are a
few examples. Again, lighting is
crucial.
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While his religious
and beloved mother was alive, Stevens never let on to anyone that he was an
occasional photographer for Playboy; which discovery would have hurt her
deeply.
RANDOM PLAYBOY PHOTOS
The following are a
series of photographs submitted to Playboy Magazine over the years by one of its
contract photographers – Dennis F. Stevens; none of which were ever
published.
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IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT, UNAUGMENTED, BREAST
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EXPERIMENTAL SHOTS
The following
photographs were taken by Stevens in an attempt to perfect his craft and
perfect his lighting skills. Most of the
models were French or military wives or girlfriends of military personnel
living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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WOMEN IN THEIR 50s WHO STILL HAD IT
Often Stevens showed
up at a location to photograph a potential Playboy model only to find that the
subject was in her 50s. Since Playboy
had sent him, although he knew the model would be rejected, in order to collect
his fee and expenses he had to go ahead and make the best of it. Some of these old broads (a Sinatra phrase) would certainly have made the cut 30
years earlier. Here are a few
examples.
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With the above as a guide,
it’s time you take your cell phone camera and go to work preserving the images
of your wife or girlfriend while she is young and sexy. Just make sure she’s of age before photographing her.
If you plan on publishing any photos, you might want to get a model
release.
All participants appearing herein signed consent forms.
Stevens does not claim the right to sell any of the
photos
herein, only the right to publish them on this Website.
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