pinup – FTN-blog

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The first book i acquired by Uwe Ommer was ” BLACK LADIES”. On the cover a beautiful photo of an even more beautiful young woman. Her face sparkles with joy. Later i realized that his subjects were mainly African woman, but what makes them for us from Europe so appealing is that these woman present themselves as confident, westernized woman of the world .

Make Up, Hair do , even their clothes are in many cases not typically African. With beautiful woman thes photobooks are real page turners and do not disappoint. Benedikt Taschen realized the qualities of Ommer and launched his photographs in his books on photography, making these photographs available to almost anybody. Their price at that time a low euro 9,90, but times have changed and these one time cheap books are now searched and collected worldwide and at a much higher price level. www.ftn-books.com

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has some Ommer titles available.

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I consider Alberto Vargas ( born in Peru) as the most original and technically accomplished pin-up artist ever. Of course, France has known some great pin-up artist like Aslan was one of them, The US brought us Elvgren and the more modern Olivia de Barardinis, but for me personally Alberto Vargas is the very best. His style is recognizable, his models are exquisite and his art has always a personal note.

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He started making Pin Up drawings in the early 20’s and kept producing new Pin-Ups until his early Eighties. Many of them appeared in Playboy magazine and the 60’s Playboy magazines contained each month a new Vargas drawing. The magazines edition rose to an enormous 7 million each month but now has fallen to 800.000.

7 million readers ( viewers) each month meant his name as a gifted (pin-up) artist spread rapidly and original drawings fetched high prices at auction. Prices have fallen a little since these GOLDEN VARGAS DAYS, but a good drawing still fetches usd. 20K+

Artistically Vargas is for sure not the most important and ground breaking artist, but his drawings have a great appeal and are technically brilliant pieces of art.

www.ftn-books.com has some Vargas titles available