[Part 03/23 | Module 1: STYLES & GENRES]

Over decades, Playboy (Enterprise) has proven a legendary adaptability with an image signature style that is incredibly successful. After a short nudity-ban-intermezzo in the US (2016) Playboy Mag was back on track. But just got shut down for good (?) in March 2020. Despite their ever-changing media formats photo style remains with a sense of taste and class. Let’s hope that’s true for their new online ventures too…

Since the 1950s, Playboy magazine has proven itself to be legendary – iconic even – for its class and tasteful presentations of some of the world’s sexiest, most beautiful women. Playboy is also notable for its abilities to adapt to changing glamour photography styles while remaining true to its original and overall image signature style.

One of the hallmarks of Playboy’s featured photos has always been, and remains, an obvious sense of taste and class while still (well, again) featuring nudity, full nudity, in its photographs.

The many elements that make up a Playboy-style photo can be, seemingly, quite complicated, and complex. While Playboy has sometimes dramatically evolved over the decades, the term “Playboy Style,” when describing a glamour or nude image, still evokes certain expectations that are understandable to most photographers and models alike. Although many of the photos that Playboy’s photographers have produced are constantly changing with the times, along with the expectations of the many fans of its brand, its signature style remains, at its core, similar if not the same.

Identifying what makes a Playboy photo – what it is and why it’s so successful – seems simple at times. That Playboy’s models have been and continue to be some of the most beautiful, sexy, and sensual women on the planet is certainly part of what makes the Playboy brand a household name.

What Drives A Playboy-Style Photo?

When Playboy creates photos for use in its flagship magazine, or across their branded media and advertising, they constantly have one overriding goal: Insuring their Playboy-style photographs are not only beautiful and sexy, yet still tasteful and classy.
Being beautiful, sexy, tasteful, and classy is how Playboy has built its brand. Had they not rigidly adhered to their principles in this regard throughout the decades, it’s possible they wouldn’t have enjoyed their continuing success. The unique Playboy style inherent in their images is what has allowed the company to become the global powerhouse of the glamour photography world. A position they’ve continued to maintain for about 60 years.

Playboy revolutionized the concept of nude photography and how it’s perceived by people from all walks of life. The company has been a huge player in the glamour market and has helped shape the professional photography industry into what it is today. Sure, other brands have contributed. Penthouse and Hustler come to mind. But neither Penthouse nor Hustler has had the kind of influence and prestige that Playboy enjoys. By opening up the glamour and nude photography world to more and more people, the company has created a world where, seemingly, everyone with a camera wants to learn and practice nude and glamour photography. They’ve also been responsible for many, many models seeking to become a Playboy model.

A Brief History Of Playboy-Style Photography

Over the decades that Playboy has been around, the types of images, as well as the styles of the images, their photographers have produced and the brand has released to the public at large has been constantly evolving and changing with the times. When the brand first began, their published images were quite different from the images we see Playboy producing today. How are they different? For starters, Playboy images have become more and more erotic over the years, as well as more revealing.

As Playboy grew and evolved, there was a point in time when the (sometimes heavy) use of an airbrush ceased to be a major contributor to Playboy’s finished photos. Back in the day, female genitals were mostly verboten. But that was then and this is now. Today, female genitalia in Playboy-style images are generally acceptable and commonplace. (Note: That doesn’t mean spread-legged!) Yet, Playboy still maintains its adherence to class and taste while still able to feature their beautiful models in full-frontal naked glory when they choose to do so.

Playboy’s pictures of old refer to a type of nude photography where the pubic hair was almost always kept covered up (or air-brushed out) be it with bedsheets, cushions, or whatever else lent itself to the task. So, while the photos themselves did feature naked women, they weren’t quite all the way naked. It’s kind of like that bit with Billy Crystal as Miracle Max in the film, The Princess Bride: There’s dead and there’s all the way dead. Well, there’s naked and there’s all the way naked. Still, there was an overall sense of subtlety and dignity often resulting, in part, by hiding the pubic-areas.

You might think of it as censorship, but it was still sexy, censored or not. You can read some hilarious stories (on Wikipedia) about the “Pubic War” by following this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pubic_Wars

Today’s Playboy Style Photos (After A Short Non-Nude Period Detour)

Some people within and without the glamour photography industry now feel that Playboy’s photo style and content are moving ever closer to being porn or smut. Playboy’s photo creators, however, use ever more complex, Playboy-style lighting to give an exciting and almost airbrushed, glossy look to the photography, even though the content within the photos may seem, to some, to border on smut. While Playboy’s images have become more revealing and provocative over time, much more so than Playboy produced in years past, the quality and “look” of the images continue to transcend what is usually perceived, by many, as being porn or smut. And that’s not always an easy task!

Today, the Playboy’s photos are beginning to show slightly more – more as in, well as in you know what I mean – with the growing inclusion of the full naked form, that is, in its entirety. But Playboy still adheres to its long-standing reputation for producing images with class and elegance. Short of some other company buying them out, lock, stock, and barrel, it’s not likely the company will venture into the kind of open-leg, spread-eagle, bare-it-all sort of glamour photography some of their competitors produce or people unfamiliar with the magazine (those people exist?) might expect.

Playboy’s Legendary Adaptability…

As a final note, I thought we would touch on one of the most integral parts of Playboy’s armory. In order to ensure their brand stands the tests of time, Playboy has needed to work hard to make and maintain their brand as a worldwide brand. They are, in some ways, like the Coca-Cola of glamour photography. Who hasn’t heard of Coke or know what it is? But with that sort of global status, came new levels of (potential and real) problems and issues for them. What they have found is that they must adapt to different countries and regions. To do so, they publish their magazine in different regions with pictorials that, they believe, will resonate with their fans in those regions.

Playboy has done an exemplary job of adapting their brand and their photographs to local markets. But, at the same time, they recognize the importance of keeping their overall, signature Playboy style, as elements of their images, reinforcing their brand in uniform ways, ways that help people all over the world recognize a Playboy-style photo when they one. Acknowledging the differences, as well as the similarities between diverse viewers is a difficult thing to accomplish at times. It’s something all aspiring glamour photographers should keep in mind when developing their own, personal, glamour photography styles.

…Just Adds A New Chapter: Closing Down It’s US Print Mag (March 2020)

Yet another turn just happened: Playboy shuts down it’s US flagship magazine. The mags circulation and advertising drooped long ago, accelerating as the nudie pictures for which it was celebrated became available everywhere for free.

As Ben Kohn, CEO Playboy Enterprises, Inc., states: “But it’s no surprise that media consumption habits have been changing for some time–and while the stories we produce and the artwork we showcase is enjoyed by millions of people on digital platforms, our content in its printed form reaches the hands of only a fraction of our fans.

Last week, as the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic to content production and the supply chain, became clearer and clearer, we were forced to accelerate a conversation we’ve been having internally: the question of how to transform our U.S. print product to better suit what consumers want today, and how to utilize our industry-leading content production capabilities to engage in a cultural conversation each day, rather than just every three months. With all of this in mind, we have decided that our Spring 2020 Issue, which arrives on U.S. newsstands and as a digital download this week, will be our final printed publication for the year in the U.S.”

• Playboy Enterprises: “An Open Letter To Our Team And Partners”
• New York Magazine: “Playboy Magazine Is Closing Down, Probably for Good”

Yet, At The End Of The Day: Playboy Always Wins

Ultimately, it seems that everything the Playboy brand (not the various media formats or business models along the way) has managed to lay its hands on has gone on to be – more or less – hugely successful. Even now after a period of drought in the industry.

By being able to carve out their particular style of nude and glamour photography, and creating a sub-set of Playboy-style photos in a variety of markets and platforms, the Playboy brand continues creating a world where many young, aspiring, models are clambering to become the next Playboy model.

Those of working and shooting in both the professional and hobbyist glamour photography world continue to look to Playboy to provide us inspiration for our own shoots.

Thanks for reading.

Additional Knowledge & Resources

Playboy Brand & Universe

• Online: The Official Playboy (Mag) Archive
• Online: “Thousands of Playboy-produced photos, videos…” > Playboy Plus
• Online: Playboy TV – Porn without showing porn? Heck, whaaaat?
• Mags: Country List printed Playboy Mags International Editions
• Playboy Clubs: Funny, silly, not-so-PC-anymore, from another Era: “The Playboy Club Bunny Manual” (July 1969) (PDF)
• Vision: THE PLAYBOY PHILOSOPHY – EDITORIAL BY HUGH M. HEFNER – Originally published in December, 1962 (PDF)