I was so familiar with this photograph back to the young age. At that moment, i realized that this photo was from playboy as their first published magazine on 1953.
Then i did some research online and found that their sales at the peak around 1970 arrived 5. 6 million Monthly but now not even close to half million.
I was so excited and thought that definitely is what i want to work on.
As we all know, America had several times technology revolution after second world war. But it’s not quite a right time. So, it result in recession with rising prices and over tens of millions people loose jobs. This is main reason why the sales rising.
According to Hollywood films, directors prefer to employ mature woman with angular face especially Italian woman rather than sweet looking woman such as Marilyn Monroe during that period.
From this cover, we can see that this woman is powerful. Because she wear suits and hold a cigar although she is naked. But, do u aware that these characters are all like man. I was conscious that actually these women are looking from men’s angle.
I collected almost all of covers from 1953 until last year. They use woman features to attract audience like lips, feet, boobs and actions. But it differ from porn books. It’s involved news, fashion and also interview report from different fields. In addition, old media like magazine and newspaper were effect by new advance technology media since 1980s. The CEO of playboy company claimed that people could look for naked photos even videos online by a click.
At the meanwhile, wide cross-section of society showed that these covers engage young generation treat women as entertainments or appendants based on their hobbies. Public opinions lead playboy company forbid using nude woman photos as covers for a year although reused on next year. Their theory had been waver at least. Furthermore, they changed subheading from entertainment for man to entertainment for all on 2018.
This brand has over 60 years history, but it still needs to change due to the world and society keep changing.
By the way, archive workshop does helped a lot. A bunch of paperwork and books in front of me when I get archive folders. It is difficult to decide where should i start with if I didn’t take that workshop.
Bibliography:
BBC News. (2019). Playboy magazine reinstates nudity. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38963007 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].
Statista. (2019). Playboy – global circulation 2018 | Statista. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/485332/playboy-circulation-worldwide/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].
Chen 