THE DEATH OF A DREAM – GARY COLE
We knew it was coming. The rumors had been out there for months. I even tried to hint at it to all of you when I began putting more emphasis on shooting non-nude glamour, especially for the group just returning from Santorini. No more nudity in Playboy Magazine. And I suspect that very soon we will hear that there will be no more print magazine of Playboy.
CEO Scott Flanders explains it this way: “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s (meaning nudity in Playboy) just passé at this juncture.” Just a minute, Mr. Flanders. Playboy never was about publishing “just about every sex act imaginable.” It was, among many other things, about publishing beautiful photography of beautiful nude women.
That’s two very different things but two things that people like Flanders and most of the media insist on confusing. The New York Times says, “Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.” Again, there’s the lumping together of nudity and pornography.
I worked for Playboy Magazine for over 40 years, 35 of those years as the Director of Photography. I oversaw the production of over 420 Playmate features and at least twice that many pictorials. I think I know what pornography is and I never found one of those Playmate features or pictorials to be pornographic. They may have varied in quality, in the beauty of the girl, in the expertise of the photographer, in the impact of the layout. However, nothing, at least in my mind, ever came close to pornography.
About Gary Cole
So why should the availability of pornography on the internet impact Playboy. The fact is that it doesn’t. I could probably come up with 100 reasons why Playboy Magazine’s circulation has declined. However, the number one reason is that print has declined. Turning Playboy Magazine non-nude will not counter that trend. It’s a point I admit only reluctantly because I’m old enough to still love paging through a magazine. I look forward to the arrival of Smithsonian, Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficiando, SI, Travel and Leisure, Vogue, etc. And I lay them all out on the coffee table as they arrive. And I note the fact that the youngest of my kids (24, 22, 20) never pick them up. Never. They are on the internet, not looking at porn (although that’s their business if they do), but searching out the subjects, the news, the humor that interests them in a format that is relevant to them.
I’d like to say that I think Playboy will continue to prosper on the internet. However, I don’t see much likelihood of that based on the content I see there now. Perhaps a younger generation will find it more interesting than I do or perhaps playboy.com’s content will improve now that the burden of nudity has been lifted from the Bunny’s shoulders.
So what do we do at Shoot the Centerfold? Do we rename it Shoot the Non-Nude Centerfold and stop shooting nudes? I think not. There’s plenty of room for good glamour photography both nude and non-nude (or implied nudity as they say). The beauty of the human body, male and female, has fascinated the artist in man since we lived in caves. That’s not going to change. I’m not sure where or if there will be new markets to sell nude photography. However, I know that nude photography is not about to die, at least as long as you believe in photography and in beautiful women.
So keep shooting. Beautiful women will still want to take their clothes off for the camera. We’ve got to be there to record their beauty in the best, most artistic way possible.
~ Gary Cole
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Here’s the one thing that fans of Playboy and Playmates, artistic nudes if you prefer, fail to fully grasp. It’s something I figured out 30 years ago and stopped trying to “fix”:
The majority of Americans consider the depiction of nude women to be pornography, no matter how artistic the photography might be. They always have, since the inception of Playboy, until today.
You say there is nothing else like Playboy at the click of a mouse. Well, in one sense you are right and the (relatively) small community of people that think the same way see that difference. But to everyone else, that centerfold picture of Miss April 2010 is pornography. Amy Leigh Andrews is nude and for most people that means porn. I have friends who look at what you and I consider porn and they consider Playboy to be soft core porn.
So I understand Flanders’ rationale. Playboy can’t (won’t) compete on those terms.
We think of the Playmates as iconic, most people consider Playmates to be porn stars. Seriously, go out some time and start a conversation about Playboy and Playmates with people that don’t read the magazine or look at porn or artistic nudes; listen to what they say. I would bet 90% of them believe Holly, Bridget and Kendra are Playmates.
Count how many times someone gives a variation of “same thing.”
It isn’t just the media that confuses, or conflates, the two.
I stopped having the argument with people a long time ago. They believe it’s porn, fine.
But I agree with Gary on one point: hard copy magazines are a thing of the past and one day Playboy will only be available on the digital platforms.
I became a subscriber in 1975, so I’ve read a lot of Playboys in my time — and looked at the photos.
Hello Tim,
I have to agree with you. But let me explain to you what the real problem is,
“North American Mentality”. You see the reason why most Americans/Canadians
think that Playboy is nothing more than porn is because of years of Radical Religious organisations and Feminist influences in the media, in schools, and any other social gatherings. The religious on one hand are against anything sensual, seductive or sexual, the Feminist hate anything that promotes images of women in the same way. Go to Europe or even Australia, places which I’ve visited and have family there, Playboy photography over there is called “Glamour Photography” and is greatly appreciated by the general public and don’t view it as porn! North America is and always has been a culture of “HATE”. Just look at how people treat each other especially in chat rooms and forums on the net. A culture of hate and violence can never appreciate what is beautiful and art.
I was always a fan of Playboy and probably will always be. I’m even practicing Glamour photography on my own (might have to move to Europe if I ever want to make a career of it).