Tag: playboy south africa

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Cover shoot:
Playboy South Africa’s March 2013 Edition

The March 2013 edition of Playboy South Africa featured a nude, B&W silhouette of a woman I had photographed some years back. The magazine were considering publishing an all-black cover and I submitted this image last minute and it got used.


Below is the original image. You can find the whole story here.

The text reads:

The Story Behind Our Cover Bum

Ironically, none of our critics of our last month cover actually asked who the model was, or whether she felt exploited. In fact this woman, Karen-Suzanne Claren, in her mid-forties, mother of two, is thrilled to have her great bum gracing the cover of our March issue!  The image came about when we decided to pull the planned March cover and our official photographer, Leah Hawker, suggested a set of high contrast, discreet and near-total black images as cover option from her archive of private client shoots.  This one of Karen’s derriere we just couldn’t resist as it visually translated our message while still keeping with our statement – No Means No- and black theme.  When Karen did the original photo shoot with Leah, as a series of artistic black & white poses, it was for  completely private reasons to celebrate her femininity, feel strong and sexy again, after coming out a long dysfunctional relationship that left her with a low self image.  Asked how she feels about being on the cover, she says she is “extremely proud and empowered by this opportunity to befeatured on such a famous magazine”  Thank you, Karen!

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A Collection of Female Attire

The Collection: Stockings & Socks
#31- #33

 (Please note: This is the “archive” of the collection of shoot props (generally lingerie/womens attire somehow) that I have gathered over the last 11 years of my career.
They are catalogued by number, and description for now as well as any other relevant information about their individual histories- how I came to have the items, what shoots they might have been used for, etc.
The style in which I document an item may vary according to the type of garment/object it is).

The Collection -STOCKINGS & SOCKS - no. 031 Catalogued for TheSofterSex

Playboy South Africa Miss September 2011 by Leah Hawker002

#31 – Knee-high socks
Knee-high cotton blend mens sports socks, sprayed green. I think I eventually found these at SportsUnlimited in Canal Walk after a mammoth search for any sock-style knee highs.
I was doing the pre-production for my first (!) Playboy Playmate shoot. The shoot was Rugby World Cup themed (all gold and green) and planned to be published in the September 2011 issue.

I found white socks a day before the shoot and asked the friend who was assisting me at the stadium to spray paint them green. I wouldn’t recommend this technique as they’re totally patchy- but it was the best solution at the time. Included is one of the published images from the locker rooms in the Cape Town stadium where we shot with Jade Fairbrother as Miss September.

The Collection -STOCKINGS & SOCKS - no. 032 Catalogued for TheSofterSex

#32 – Stockings
Thigh-high, black fishnet stockings, one size fits all. There’s this term “one size fits all” which would typically get attached to a mass-produced product like this and all it does in most cases (where the item doesn’t fit you) is leave women feeling inadequate I always think.

 

The Collection -STOCKINGS & SOCKS - no. 033 Catalogued for TheSofterSex

#33 – Knee-high stockings
Stripped semi-opaque and transparent, red knee high stockings. I bought two pairs in red and two pairs in fuchsia pink from a stocking factory shop in Woodstock years back.

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Projects Women I've Shot

The Pinup Series, 2012
Part 1

Behind-The-Scenes PINUP Yolandi Malherbe 015 with Leah Hawker

In August 2012 I initiated a new series of work, using the Playboy South Africa Playmates, to go alongside a group exhibition called Nostalgia, which I was  curating at Exposure Gallery.

The series was shot over two days with six different Playmates. The images catalogued here come from the first shoot on Womens’ Day, 8th August with Yolandi Malherbe, Mpho Tsila and Yolandi Wiggett, – hair by Chantal Morgan and make-up by Colleen Van Rensburg.

A series of shots on the side for Yolandi to post on social media...
A series of shots on the side for Yolandi to post on social media…

The approach for the shoot took a while for me to plan, I wanted the final images to really look like old originals and thus decided to layer the processing of the images.

I shot in studio against a mid-tone grey back-drop roll using two lights; a strip soft box creating rim light and a beauty-dish with a grid as the main light. After retouching and quite substantial colour manipulation (to adjust backgrounds and props appropriately) I overlaid the files with previously documented textures and then had them printed out onto cotton-based Hanhemulle.

I spent a couple of days staining, soaking, burning, crushing, folding and generally damaging these originals until they looked sufficiently handled and then re-documented them on a white background. These files were again re-worked before final exhibition prints were created , again on Hahnemulle.

Yolandi M- Pinup Miss July 2011 Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town Photography

The shoot was fun and relaxed with bubbly and a few friends coming in to lend a hand or deliver koeksisters (thank you Leigh Van Den Berg, beauty-blogger-extraordonaire of lipgglossismylife) (and also thank- you for the blog post about the shoot!).

Bubbles, hair, makeup, refernces, shooting, nails and friends popping in (thats Yolandi M. top middle, Mpho bottom middle and Leigh Van Den Berg bottom right)
Bubbles, hair, makeup, refernces, shooting, nails and friends popping in (thats Yolandi M. top middle, Mpho bottom middle and Leigh Van Den Berg bottom right)

Yolandi Nude Pinup copy Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town Photography Behind-The-Scenes PINUP Mpho Tsila 015 with Leah Hawker

Mpho- Pinup Miss August 2011 Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town Photography Mpho Nude Pinup Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town PhotographyFor each of the playmates I worked with I produced a semi-nude final image for the exhibition and a nude for publication in Playboy magazine itself. We also shot one or two fun closer up shots for each Playmate to use on social media.

Great pinup-style makeup done on Yolandi Wiggett by Colleen Van Rensberg.
Great pinup-style makeup done on Yolandi Wiggett by Colleen Van Rensberg.

Yolandi W- Pinup Miss February 2012 Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town PhotographyYolandi W Nude Pinup Photography by Leah Hawker Cape Town Photography

Categories
A Collection of Female Attire

The Collection: Panties
#1 – #3

 (Please note: This is the “archive” of the collection of shoot props (generally lingerie/womens attire somehow) that I have gathered over the last 11 years of my career.
They are catalogued by number, and description for now as well as any other relevant information about their individual histories- how I came to have the items, what shoots they might have been used for, etc.
The style in which I document an item may vary according to the type of garment/object it is).

The Collection - PANTIES - no.001 Catalogued for TheSofterSex#1 – Panties.
Size smallish, synthetic, lacy, dusty pink. High cut and dated, these knickers sit like a pair of high waited jeans from the late 80’s/early 90’s. I have no clue where they came from anymore and have also never used them in a shoot. 

The Collection - PANTIES - no.002 Catalogued for TheSofterSex

#2 – Panties.
Size tiny, red with silver shimmery elastic and stretch-mesh frills. My partner who co-owns his own online sex-shop had been sent a few sample freebies with an order of which this tiny pair was one. They were handed over to me for the collection. They are so small I’ve never found a woman that could actually fit into them.

The Collection - PANTIES - no.003 Catalogued for TheSofterSex

Kelly McLennan Playboy Photograph by Leah Hawker Cape Town Photographer

Kelly-McLennan-Miss-April-26-By-Leah-Hawker

#3 – Panties.
Sheer pink lace Brazilian style bum with a boy-short style cut front in cotton with multi-coloured stripes. Mr. Price, size small or medium, label cut out for shoot. One of a two pack. I bought these knickers for the Miss April Playboy Playmate shoot featuring Kelly McLennan in 2013. The theme was based on the concept “Postcards from Cape Town” and was all about local beaches and Summer vibes, thus the playful girlie knickers (mostly for the PR shots). Included are two of the images shot on Sunset Beach for the editorial.