Portraits | Pinups

Having been a fan of the 1940's and 50's pinup illustrators I thought it would be challenging to try recreating those wonderful illustrations, using my camera rather than with canvas and paint, as the pinup artists of that era did. The first step would be to find the right props and wardrobe needed to perfect the shot. After spending countless hours scouring thrift stores and online shopping sites, I managed to find what I needed for each scenario. Some props I would just have to construct myself, like the diving board and archery target you'll see in Sabina Kellys' images, or the ship railing in my Dayna DeLux shot. I contacted Heidi Van Horne, Sabina Kelly, and Dayna DeLux, who were among the top pinup models at the time, and asked if they would help me with this project. I knew they would bring to the shoot the freshness, enthusiasm and spontaneity needed for the images. Since ninety five percent of this work is shot in the studio, sets needed to be constructed, which involved the building of walls, counters, fences, ship masts, etc. The models are photographed against a blue screen, which allows me to drop in a sky or other backgrounds in post production. In my attempt to capture the same look and feel of that time period, attention to detail was paramount. I would start with a concept, then I would set about choosing which model had the features I was looking for. Since the face is the personality, I was looking for a model with highly mobile facial features, capable of a wide range of expressions. I experimented with different lighting techniques until I got the results I was after. Lighting diagrams are carefully sketched out the night before so everything goes smoothly on the day of the shoot. It was not uncommon to use as many as a dozen lights to achieve the desired effect. Lastly and most importantly, a professional hair and make-up artist needed to be hired to complete the look. This is a significant factor since both the hair and the make-up needed to reflect the period, or it wouldn't look right. The results are culminated in the images below.