Linia Eleanor “Bunny” Yeager both knew how to look great naked – and how to make other women look beautiful in fondness.
Yeager began her career as a model and was a cheesecake queen of 1951 before going behind the camera to shoot Betty Page and other Leggie models in the 1950s and ’60s, who used Pinup Pix in works of art. She used to lift up.
“Bunny understood what makes a good photo shoot work, because she was a model, as well as a modeling and photography teacher. And Betty showed, ready to work, creativity with her posture and facial expression And bringing excitement, “said 50-year-old Richard Foster, author of”The Real Betty Page“
“They were both lucky, smart, independent-minded women at a time when the world did not provide as many opportunities for them, and I think they recognized the same qualities in each other.”
On Saturday, Mid-Hudson Auction Gallery, located in New Windsor, NY Will auction Part of the huge archives of the late pinup turned photographer Yager, some of them are some of the most famous shots of the infamous Betty Page.
The auction is the fifth sale of Yeager’s work since January, and will include unpublished drawings and negativity of mid-century beauties, including thousands of items in 380 lots.
It is a treasure that showcases the famous working relationship of Yeager and Page, which gave rise to some of the most iconic images of the latter. Their collaboration, which began in 1954, allowed Page to be freed from bondage shoots for Fetish magazines. While working with Yeager, who died of cardiac arrest at the age of 85 in 2014, Page was imprisoned in more artistic settings away from the male gaze.
“She was very tasty and [her models] Applauded, “said Mid-Hudson Auction Gallery owner, premier auctioneer and appraiser Joan Grant, 80.” Betty Page … was looking for a new avenue, and found her with Bunny Yeager, of course. It was a completely different environment. “
This does not mean that Page, who died of a heart attack in 2008 at the age of 85, was always dressed.
In one of his first and most famous seasons, Page wears nothing but a Santa hat sewed by Yeager, and kneels next to a Christmas tree and wears him jewelry. Hugh Hefner paid $ 100 (today $ 993) for the image and published it in the January 1955 Playboy Centerfold.
A print of that photo Available for sale In a pack of 10 composite images (approximate value between $ 60 and $ 100), and An unpublished clearance The shoot, in which Page looks away from the camera, is estimated to have received between $ 100 and $ 150.
Other images were wild. Yeager, who was one of the first glamor photographers to snap her model in natural light, shot Page wearing a leopard-print dress and posing with cheetahs at the closed Africa USA Animal Park in Boca Raton, Florida. Self-Portrait Behind the Scenes Two, and two bent cheetahs are estimated to sell for $ 200 to $ 300.
Interpersonal motivation defined the working relationships of two women.
Foster said “Betty Page was the final collection of Bunny Yeager,” whose book was adapted into the 2006 film “The Notorious Betty Page” starring Gretchen Mole in the title role and Sarah Paulson as Yeager .
“Bunny told me that Betty was ‘the best pinup-glamor model that ever lived,’ [and said] ‘She was like a portrait – a perfect woman: untrue, funny, imagined. Betty always portrayed a woman who indicated that it would be fun to be with her, someone who would never have a headache or a bad mood. Sure, she will pat. . . But you always knew that she was playing with you. ‘ “
Page left modeling in 1957 and disappeared at the height of his fame, two years later after the Senate investigation of pornography and the controversy surrounding it. But, decades later, she became a beloved figure in some circles. His pinup popularity – the foundation of which is Yager’s legacy – remains.
“Millennials and Jane Z are an entirely new generation of women who see Betty Page as an example of female sexuality and power, not to mention the broad and devoted following of those who find her a fashion and beauty Icon, and counterculture as an icon, ”said Foster.
Diane Arbus once referred to Yeager as “the world’s greatest pinup photographer” and Yeager’s model – though wearing nothing or nothing – showed an air of innocence.
Beyond the landing page on Playboy’s pages, Yeager discovered the magazine’s first playmate of the year, Lisa Winters, at a bus stop in 1956. Hundreds of magazines showcase his work, and he has published more than 25 books.
In the 1970s, when men’s magazines began to demand more explicit imagery, Yeager stopped shooting nude, calling the new genre “A kind of dirty, “According to the Washington Post.
Falling into obscurity, his work received renewed appreciation in the final years of his life, with a 2010 retrospective display of his self-portraits at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a 2013 retrospective at the Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale.
In an interview, he once revealed the secret of his success.
“It’s easy for a woman,” he said, “asking a girl to take off her clothes.”
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