Gerry Low - Here we have a New York portrait, fashion, glamour and figure photographer whose work was published in quite a few photography magazines and photo digests of the late 50s and early 60s, but so far, I have found little biographical information on him. Update (9/20/20): Gerry Low was born in Shanghai, China on March 2, 1919 and grew up in Vienna, Austria (his father had been a merchant who was based in Vienna). Gerry became a naturalized U.S. citizen on June 5, 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri and joined the army, serving both in the States and in Europe and remained as a civilian attached to the army after his discharge. It was a chance meeting with glamour photographer Peter Basch that led him to become interested in photography. After a one-month apprenticeship with Basch, Low attended a photography school and after graduation, he became a highly successful photographer on his own.
Low worked in a well-equipped midtown studio where he concentrated on creating what he called "fashion portraits". For many years, typical fashion photos had concentrated on showing the product being publicized, with little or no emphasis on the model under the fashion. Low's fashion pictures illustrated the idea that the face, figure and beauty of the model could be important elements in heightening the attractiveness of clothing. Therefore, one of the most important elements of a Low "personality in fashion" photo was, obviously, a very beautiful model. In essence, his fashion photographs were a mix of portrait, fashion and glamour.
In terms of being published, 1957 was a pretty big year for Gerry Low, as his photos appeared in several periodicals such as Classic Photography (Spring and Summer issues), Master Photography (Summer issue) and Salon Photography ("Metal Nudes" by Gerry Low). In the summer of 1958, Low had a portfolio of his nudes published in Figure Quarterly (Volume Twenty One). In 1959, his photographs accompanied articles in the photo digests Good Photography ("Beauty Portraits" by Gerry Low) and Salon Photography ("Hair" by Gerry Low), and in a 1960 edition of Good Photography, photos by Mr. Low illustrated an article entitled "Figure Photography from Famous Sculpture". In another 1960 edition of Good Photography (#461), he wrote an eight page article featuring some of his artistic nudes that were photographed against seamless paper backgrounds. The title of the article was "Black vs. White Backgrounds".
In addition to the articles mentioned above, Gerry Low's nudes and glamour portraits were frequently featured in all of the Whitestone photo books (Good Photography, Candid Photography, Prize Winning Photography and Salon Photography) throughout the late 1950s and early 60s. Most of Low's photographs seemed to have been taken in his studio, but one of his rare outdoor glamour photos can be seen here.
Camera equipment used by Gerry Low included the medium format Hasselblad F equipped with a Zeiss-Sonnar lens. Low preferred Panatomic-X film for portrait work due to the fact that it had almost no grain when developed (for development, he used D-76 for twelve minutes).
Burr Jerger - Burr Jerger is a bit of a mystery to me as I have very little information on his early life other than that he was born on Sept. 6, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois. A hint as to his early years before becoming a photographer can be found in the December 1961 issue of Modern Man: "A veteran of show biz, graduate of University of Chicago law school, Jerger was a teacher until his hobby of photographing medical operations earned him national attention. Then he turned his full time to cameras with the result that today he is one of Hollywood's most successful glamour photogs."
I first became aware of Burr Jerger while reading the 1959 issue of Candid Photography, which featured an article by Mr. Jerger entitled "Glamour in Nature", which was illustrated with seven of his photos. More of Jerger's photography could be found in the 1959 Fawcett book Photographing Glamour with a chapter penned by him called "Glamour As An Art".
A further result of my collecting glamour books and magazines from the 1950s and 60s led me to finding several more articles by Burr Jerger, including "Art With A Corroded Lens" (Figure Photography and Darkroom Guide - July 1957) and "Famous Faces" (Salon Photography - 1957).
Glamour models photographed by Burr Jerger included Valerie French, Shirley Falls (March 1959 issue of Caper), Lilli Kardell (Oct. 1961 issue of Saga magazine), Ginny Caldwell, Abby Dalton (Nov. 1957 issue of Nugget magazine), Jean Coleman, Kay Elhardt and Carol Morris (May 1958 issue of Male magazine) - she had been the winner of the 1957 Miss Universe Pageant.
In addition to glamour, Mr. Jerger also took candid photos of many of the top Hollywood stars of the day, including Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Anne Bancroft, Jane Russell, Raymond Massey, Jean Simmons, John Wayne, Buster Keaton, Robert Mitchum, Bob Hope, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Cummings.
Camera equipment used by Mr. Jerger included the medium format Rolleicord and Rolleiflex cameras as well as some 35mm. For B&W film, he used Kodak (Tri-X, etc.) and some Gevaert Gevapan 27, which was made in Belgium. For 35mm color, he often used Kodachrome.
In 1961, Burr Jerger left the United States and moved to Europe, where he worked as a freelance reporter for Show Business Illustrated, Ebony, and Globe Photos. He also served as assistant director on a few French films (uncredited) and appeared as an actor in Captain Sinbad (1963). In 1966, he moved to Belgium, where he would write, direct and star in his own film, General Massacre, a controversial independent feature that never received authentic distribution. In 1973, he left Belgium and went back to Paris, and later to the United States, where he once again worked as a freelance reporter/photographer.
Burr Jerger (born Wilbur Joseph Jerger) passed away on May 12, 1982 in Westminster, California following a long illness. He was 64 years old.
Frank Eck photographs Marilyn Maher in his Manhattan studio. Some of the photos would appear in the June 1958 issue of Hi-Life magazine.
Frank Eck - Frank Eck was a New York photographer who shot quite a bit of glamour in the late 50s and early 60s - he photographed six Playboy Playmates during that time period - but there is scant information published about him, either in magazines and books at the time, or on the internet. Because of this, I am asking any readers who have some information on this talented photographer to contact me (see the "contact me" page).
The first magazine that I could find which featured the glamour photography of Frank Eck was the August 1956 issue of The Dude (in a two page "photo-poem" called "My Love in Her Attire"). Later, some of his photos were featured in the June 1958 issue of Hi-Life magazine. In this issue, Frank was the subject of another photographer, John Duillo, who captured him at work in his Manhattan studio shooting two different models - Marilyn Maher and Teddy Martin. In addition to this, Frank photographed Zahra Norbo for the cover of the first issue of Venus magazine (1958) and Sharon Bujese for the cover and pictorial inside the Jan. 1959 issue of Scamp magazine.
Also in 1959, Frank sold two Playmate of the Month layouts to Playboy magazine. They were of Clayre Peters (Miss Aug. 1959) and Elaine Reynolds (Miss Oct. 1959). Hugh Hefner himself was on the set of Miss Reynolds' centerfold shoot. Over the next four years, Frank Eck sold one layout each year to the magazine: Elaine Paul (Miss Aug. 1960), Lynn Karrol (Miss Dec. 1961), Roberta Lane (Miss April 1962) and Adrienne Moreau (Miss March 1963). All of the above Playmates were from the New York City area.
The same year that his last Playmate pictorial appeared in Playboy, another of Frank Eck's New York models, Faye Symms, appeared in back to back issues of Modern Man magazine. In the January 1963 issue of Modern Man, one photo of Miss Symms was published in the Modern Art for Men section of the magazine and in the February 1963 issue, a four page layout by Frank Eck (in the Doll of the Month section) featured seven photos of Faye Symms.
In addition to shooting for Playboy and Modern Man, Frank Eck also occasionally shot glamour images for more mainstream magazines of the 60s, such as the February 1962 issue of Pageant magazine (below).
Camera equipment used by Frank Eck included a medium format camera (probably a Rolleiflex) and an 8x10 camera, which he used for his Playmate centerfolds.
At this time, I haven't seen any additional glamour photos by Frank Eck, but I did learn that Frank took candid photos of stars such as Barbra Streisand for The Players Showcase magazine during the mid 60s and also photographed an auto race for an article entitled "North American Racing Team" in the June 1964 issue of Escapade magazine.
Update: Thanks to Maria Zambrana for letting me know that Frank Eck also had some automotive photos published in the June 1959 issue of Car Speed and Style in an article entitled "Autorama Time Again!". She later alerted me to the fact that Frank shot a pictorial in the December 1964 issue of Modern Man called "Our Fair Ladies", where Frank captured images of beautiful women at the New York World's Fair. The article can be viewed here.
Update #2: Paul Moverman wrote to tell me that he had hired Frank in 1969 to do a photo shoot at a recording studio in Cranston, Rhode Island. Paul was 18 years old at the time and owned a small record label.
Update #3 (8/2/21): After obtaining a digital copy of the 1963-64 Manhattan telephone directory, I discovered that Frank Eck's real name was Franz W. Eck and his studio was located at 251 E 51st St. in Manhattan. After finding his true birth name, I went back to Ancestry.com and soon learned that Frank was born in New York on Sept. 8, 1932 (His father Franz, a butcher, and mother Ilse, a housewife, came to the U.S. from Germany. Frank would also have a younger brother named Eugene). During the Korean conflict, Frank served as a "Photographer's Mate" (PH3 rank) in the Navy / U.S. Coast Guard. After having his photos published in Playboy and Modern Man in the late 50s and early 60s, Frank seemed to have taken a little hiatus from shooting glamour, but in December of 1977, he began shooting layouts for Penthouse magazine using the name F.W. Eck. At this time, I've found that he made around four or five contributions to Penthouse, with one of them being the Pet of the Month pictorial for May 1978 (Angela Hyer). I hope to have more personal information on Mr. Eck very soon (I need to confirm some of it), but for now I will just note that Frank Eck passed away on June 6, 2008 at the age of 75. He was interred in the Long Island National Cemetery.
Update #4 (3/13/22): I just received a message from a professional photographer by the name of Michael Tagner. While he was in his early 20s, Michael worked for a small studio on Long Island, NY, and around 1983, Frank Eck was hired as the studio manager. Frank soon took Michael under his wing and showed him some of his techniques for photographing women. After a few years, Michael left and started his own commercial studio. About a year after that, Frank looked him up and became a sales rep for Michael's studio. During this time, the two did some photoshoots together; Frank found some models and Michael assisted him during the sessions. A few years later, Frank left Michael's studio and began working for a photo lab in Nassau County (Long Island), but he still brought jobs to Michael on occasion. After a while, Michael lost touch with Frank. The last time he saw him was in the late 80s or early 90s. By the way, I had previously found evidence that Frank Eck had been married twice - the first time in 1954 and again in 1966 - but Michael says that during the time he knew Frank, he was no longer married.
Luandre Furia - Luandre Furia was still a comparative newcomer to glamour photography when a portfolio of his work was featured in the 1957 edition of Best Photography. The editors of the book particularly noted his knack for finding beautiful models.
Born in New York City on June 24, 1928, Luandre Furia was raised in an atmosphere close to the theater. His mother, Emily Furia, was a concert and opera singer. Because of this background, he always felt close to people in the entertainment field. He even studied drama for awhile when he first arrived in Hollywood.
Equipped with a twin-lens reflex camera that he obtained at a bargain, Furia discovered that it was a natural entre for him in Hollywood circles, and he began asking various starlets if they would mind posing for him. One instance of Furia approaching a prospective model was recounted by Playboy's Miss August 1956, Jonnie Nicely, in The Playmate Book (1996): "I was 18 when I met a photographer by the name of Lou Furia at a dance at the Inglewood Recreation Center. He wanted to know if I'd like to model. Then I got a call from Hal Adams to do a Hartog ad, and sometime after that he (Mr. Adams) asked me if I wanted to pose for Playboy."
In choosing models, Mr. Furia always liked to work with a girl who was ambitious to further her career. Such a model, he reasoned, always worked harder and was more willing to use her imagination in creating different and appealing poses.
Furia preferred natural settings to studios, often photographing a girl in the familiar and intimate surroundings of her own apartment or home. Once the location was decided upon, he would take as many as a couple of hundred different shots of the model in various poses and dress, perhaps obtaining a dozen or so really outstanding photos that had strong, immediate appeal to an editor or viewer.
Some of Luandre Furia's models included Laurette Luez, Jan Harrison, Sharon Walton, Beverly Montgomery, Carol Grace, June Svedin (Miss Washington in the 1956 Miss USA contest), Colleen O'Sullivan, Gale Robbins, Iris Bristol and June Wilkinson.
According to Best Photography (1957): "Furia loves his work and he expects to continue to specialize in the field of photographing beautiful, fresh-looking women."
Luandre Furia passed away on Nov. 28, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. He was 74 years old. If any readers know of Mr. Furia's activities in the 1960s, 70s, etc., please let me know.
Jon Pownall - Jon Pownall was a Chicago-based photographer, commercial director and filmmaker during the 1960s. When he decided to enter the field of glamour photography in the early 60s, it was natural for him to sell his photos to two men's magazines that were based in the area: Playboy (Chicago, IL) and Rogue (Evanston, IL).
Jon Pownall was born on Aug. 12, 1934 in Maryland, but the family later moved back to his mother's hometown of Sanford, Maine. At the age of 12 or 13, Jon received his first camera, a Brownie, as a gift from his mother. After graduating from high school, Jon moved to New York to attend Rochester Institute of Technology with the goal of becoming a photographer. At RIT, Jon met his wife Jean, and after they received their associate degrees, they moved to Chicago so Jon could finish college. They opened their studio shortly after Jon graduated in 1956/57. In their photography business, Jon and Jean were a team, with Jean doing the make-up on their models, buying props for ads and commercials and making meals for their clients.
In the early 60s, the Pownalls bought and remodeled a 3 story brick building at 918 W. Armitage in Chicago. The first floor was offices, a darkroom, a large studio area and a loading dock at the rear of the building. The 2nd floor had an editing room and a kitchen/living room/dining room to entertain clients. The basement had a projection room/theater and the family lived on the 3rd floor. It was while they were located in this building that Jon and Jean photographed the majority of their glamour work for Playboy and Rogue magazines.
Jon Pownall's first and only Playmate layout for Playboy magazine featured one of my all time favorite centerfolds. It was of Avis Kimble (Miss Nov. 1962).
During 1963, Mr. Pownall shot two covers for Rogue magazine (May and October) as well as three layouts inside the magazine. The first layout was a five page pictorial called "The History of Glamour" in the May issue, the second was the centerspread of Marion Anders (The Rogue Girl) in the August issue and the third was the four page pictorial "Rogue Throws A Yachting Party" in the December issue.
For 1964, when Rogue went to six issues per year, Jon Pownall photographed two of the Rogue Girl pictorials: Nina Forrest (January) and Toni-Lee Shelley (October). Toni-Lee Shelley gained notoriety for being arrested in Chicago for indecent exposure after she wore a topless bathing suit at a public beach.
Camera equipment used by Pownall included the medium format Hasselblad, a Rolleiflex, and an 8x10 camera which he used for his Playboy and Rogue centerfolds.
Also during the 1960s, Jon Pownall branched out into directing TV commercials (for McDonalds, Bell and Howell, Oldsmobile, etc.) and by the early 70s he was even making his own feature length films. His first film, "Goodbye, Fat Larry", produced in 1970/'71, went unreleased.
In 1971, Jon moved his family - his wife Jean and three children - to Sanford, Maine and began preproduction on his second film, "The Salem Six". By August 1973, he had cast his film and was ready to start filming when, on August 31, he was shot to death by an unknown assailant at the film studio's office in Portland. Before long, it was discovered that someone had recently taken out $400,000 worth of life insurance on Jon. According to Lynda Pownall-Carlson (Jon's daughter) on her gofundme page, the motive for her father's murder was the insurance money and the appropriate people were put on trial, but were acquitted.
Today, Lynda Pownall-Carlson is trying to raise funds to be able to digitize her father's photos and film work. If you would like to contribute, please visit her page.
Jon Pownall was 39 years old at the time of his death. Jean Pownall passed away on September 13, 2012 at the age of 77. It had been her dream of 30 years to fund a movie about the life and death of her beloved husband.
Special thanks to Lynda Pownall-Carlson for providing most of the biographical information contained in this profile.
RBK Photography - I first noticed the glamour photography of RBK when it began to appear on a regular basis in the Modern Art for Men section of Modern Man sometime around the January 1963 issue. These two page color spreads in the magazine had usually been reserved for Ron Vogel during the early 60s, but in 1963, RBK began to take over this task. Later, they started to photograph models for the Doll of the Month section of the magazine, as well as being featured in issues of Figure Quarterly magazine (1965, 1967, 1971 and 1974).
The name RBK refers to the husband and wife team of Rudy and Blanca Kratochvil. Coming to the U.S. from Europe, the couple established RBK studios in Hollywood and San Francisco in an amazingly short period of time. Although glamour photography was their specialty, they were equally skilled in the fields of commercial, industrial and portrait photography.
When Rudy and Blanca first met in Europe several years earlier, Rudy enjoyed an international reputation for his salon exhibitions in many countries and Blanca was planning a medical career, but she soon became interested in photography and the two joined forces. It was to Rudy's credit that, as a teacher, his star pupil became his equal. According to Blanca: "Photography itself offers such a splendid variety of studies that to be a successful photographer in any field - and especially figure photography - one has to know everything. Besides the camera techniques and lighting, there are things like the basics of choreography and make-up artistry. One should also have a feeling for nature and landscape, in order to blend them together with the beauty of the nude."
Ever since Rudy's graduation from photographic engineering school, his special field of interest lay in the technical and theoretical aspects of the art. He is credited with inventing a special development formula which shortened the color printing process considerably. It was this method that he used at RBK studios in California.
Some of the Kratochvils' glamour models which were featured in Modern Man include: Madlene Lantz (Jan. '63), Heide Miller (July '63), Erika Hausner (Sept. '63), Maria Horstwig (Sept. '64), Dodie Thompson (Oct. '64), Wendy Alexander (Jan. '65), Tina Wood (May '65), Kelly Kaye (Sept. '65), Lilli Shan (Sept. '65), Mary Barrett (Aug. '66), Rita Bergman (Feb. '67), Nancy Peterson (June '67), Erica Brodsky (June '67), Ivanna Reese (Dec. '67), Linda McAllen (Dec. '67) and Linda Newell (Aug. '69). Their artistic nude models, featured in Figure Quarterly and occasionally in Modern Man, were not named, in order to keep them impersonal.
One of the secrets to the success of the Kratochvils was an untiring devotion to their work. Said Blanca in the Fall 1967 issue of Figure Quarterly: "Neither of us has a hobby, thus all of our spare time is devoted to our life, which is photography."
