(Note: “The Housewives” was a term I fondly coined in 2006 after I started getting shoot requests from private, individual women who became my clients. Many of the women who contacted me were married and in their mid 30’s and were doing the shoots as gifts to their husbands. The folder in my archives is still called this and so I’ve stuck to it, in part just for the irony: most of these women are not “housewives” at all, but strong independent and forward thinking women who I have had the honour of documenting.
All are private commissions and the demographic has changed substantially over the years. Some I’m still in contact with, others I’ve totally lost contact with, some have become friends, some may wish not to have their real names used, others don’t mind, some may have their faces obscured for privacy reasons, others have generously shared their experiences of being photographed.)
I met and photographed Hungarian Playboy playmate and winner of Playboy Playmate of the Year title Marianna in 2016. Her shoot was commissioned by a private male client.
The shoot brief was to make a large series of images over a one day shoot which were reminiscent of Cape Town and a reminder for Marianna of her trip to Africa. We shot at 3 locations with 4 looks over the one day.
After hair and makeup which was done at The Radisson hotel next to the V&A Waterfront we moved to the iconic Dolos (large faceted and rather beautifully designed concrete wave breakers) which were conveniently infant of the hotel. We did a lingerie shoot there and then moved to Camps Bay beach for the second look.
We shot for a few hours at midday with a reflector on Camps Bay beach with a change of about 5 swimsuits mostly from my prop collection but some from H&M (tops only) and two by an American design company Swimtart (sadly no longer around otherwise I would have added the link).
Marianna was lovely to work with, very sweet, reserved and easygoing. We had a break for lunch and all met again at Milnerton/Sunset beach for the last location of the afternoon at sunset.
We shot two looks at Milnerton beach: one more lifestyle and one swimsuit. Ive added a selection from this sequences of pics below. Everything was shot natural light with one large silver reflector.
Below are two of Marianna’s Playboy covers I found online and thought would give a nice perspective here.
