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Proto-Porn Scarce Digests of the 1950s Camera Figure Studies and the Origins of Glamor Photography

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    Posted 13 years ago

    JimLinderman
    (203 items)

    During the 1950s, under the ruse of "Art Studies" and "Figure Studies" amateur businessman skirted the law publishing hundreds of digest-sized primitive camera art photographs of nearly nude women. Seldom dated, by somewhat disreputable publishers, the digests featured burlesque dancers and models such as Bettie Page in makeshift studios, and were the first books to challenge censorship and the conventions of the times as it related to the female form. The tawdry origins of Glamour Photography! The booklets are today scarce and seldom seen. Dubbed Proto-Porn, over 100 have been collected in book form by the first time by Jim Linderman. Proto-Porn details the publishers and addresses the conflicting notions of art and nudity of the Eisenhower years. Colorful, disreputable and quasi-legal, the books nonetheless pre-date modern-day fashion and nude photography. Tame by any standard today, the books have not been shown in over 50 years, and never before collected in a book.

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    Comments

    1. lundy lundy, 13 years ago
      TEE TIME 4 ME
    2. jrush99 jrush99, 13 years ago
      AHHH!!! I love this!! So amazing :)
    3. REBL, 13 years ago
      Nice Betty Page
    4. Pencil-necked-geek Pencil-necked-geek, 13 years ago
      So, JL ~ where would these type of magazines have been purchased? Mail order thru men's magazines like "True"? pool rooms? bus station restrooms? Hard to imagine they would have been available at the local newsstand.
    5. JimLinderman JimLinderman, 13 years ago
      Cigar shoppes, "novelties" and magazine stores, camera stores, times square. Mostly under the counter. The book Proto-Porn tells the story for the first time. I collected around 100 of them, but no one has ever written about them Thanks for asking!
    6. flyrr100, 12 years ago
      I think I dated TEE TEE RED! Or maybe it was just a dream! nice....
    7. Manikin Manikin, 12 years ago
      lol flyer :-)
      I think these were sold in brown bags at stores behind counter . I remember that I didn't buy them but I would see men buy them .

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