Paccevi*

Yesterday we collectively lost one of the most important icons of our time

She was born April 22, 1923, the oldest of six. She divorced three times and was in her life a wife, teacher and secretary. She was the second most famous Playboy Bunny, and the picture of her wearing only a Santa’s hat placing decorations on a miniature Christmas tree is one of the most memorable of all Christmas pictures. She proved that while blondes may have had more fun, those blessed with raven tresses could inspire far wilder fantasy. Her images gave birth in time to the suicide girl style of pictures, and would create the very base of the goth girl stereotype. Late in life she became reborn but managed to find a balance between the faith she felt and the sensuality she inspired. Bettie Mae Page, passed in the early evening of December 11 2008, she was 85.

We are defined by those icons who shape our perception of what is funny, what is important, what is sexy. I remember much earlier this year when G. Carlin passed on. I felt a loss because he was still creating but I have to say with a little shame that the passing of Ms. Page didn’t illicit the same feeling. Her mark was made early in life, she had stopped posing by the time she was 35. The remaining 50 years would be filled with scandal and truth be told incredible sadness, it wasn’t until her 50’s that she managed ( with the help of playboy ) to receive proper payment for her images. As she did interviews late in life she would beg people not to take pictures of her instead allowing people to remember her as she was.

But what was she?

Stunning. It’s the best way to describe her. And not just because she was incredibly beautiful ( by anyone standards). Not just because she would willingly shed clothes. She was stunning because she was always willing to be fun, always willing to push the envelope, always willing to be part of the process that produced images that today still make peoples heart speed up. There was always a playfulness that came through in her images. You could tell that for that brief moment she was 100% in the moment.

Take a moment, most of us are not old enough to remember the time that Bettie was allowing such images to be taken. But right now I want you all to consider what you would think of a girl who stripped nude for the camera. Say it was one of your friends. Say it was your girlfriend. Or your sister. I know a lot of people who want to be models, who want the recognition that comes with being a poster girl or a pin up girl or a sex symbol. Of those girls there are few who are willing to get naked. I know that no one is entirely pleased with the way they look nude but that is not the reason that people won’t pose nude. The primary reason is fear of what their peers would think if they knew. I experience this in a mild way I am not always forthcoming about the types of images I take because I fear that I will be labelled a pornographer. The feeling is fading as I become more comfortable with the images I capture, I find pride in a picture that is taken well but still, there is the feeling deep in my mind that people will tease me or think less of me for taking those pictures.

And that’s today.

58 years ago. It was illegal to pose completely nude. Like jail time! The conservative views of today would be considered dangerously liberal back then. Nude images were hidden away in the back rooms of those shops that offered glossy 8x10’s in bins ( I wish I could have been to shops like that all those printed pictures … it’s hard to imagine ) code words and clandestine groups who worked in secret to circulate pictures. This was how society viewed the industry that supplied those images. Trench coats and plain paper wrapping, packages shipped from Mexico.

But like the pot issue of today, the nude issue of the 50’s was a poorly hidden fact and everyone with a twitch knew who Bettie Page was. And every one knew of the stigma attached to her. She never made allusions to the reasons behind posing… the money was good, better than typing in a secretarial pool. Still my cap is off to her. There is a solid bravery in doing what she did.

I have sadness in my heart that she became kitsch in the 80-90‘s, and I lament the fact that people copy her without knowing where their style is coming from. And I guess in a way there is a huge element of her imagery that I try to emulate in the pictures I take. So ingrained in my psyche that it is second nature to want to have an element of her style, her class, her bravery in the work I do. It is a goal to strive for as I also attempt to make my work my own.

But god! she was stunning.

* i have sinned