Jasper Johal
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Vargas Pinup
🕑 Added 2021-09-19 09:36:32 +0000 UTCPhotography was preceded by painting as the preferred medium for magazine illustration.
Back in the 1930s an artist named George Petty created the classic pinup illustrations for GQ magazine. These “Petty Girls” proved very popular, and fueled GQ’s sales.
When Petty asked for a higher fee for his work, GQ terminated his contract and replaced him with a Peruvian born artist named Alberto Vargas, paying Vargas just a fraction of the money they had been paying Petty.
GQ was known for exploiting artists back then. Before he launched Playboy magazine, a young Hugh Hefner used to draw cartoons for GQ magazine. He too was fired from GQ when he asked for a $5 raise. So when Playboy became successful, Hefner stole Vargas away from GQ.
PHOTO: I have enjoyed Vargas’ work since I saw an exhibit of his paintings on Melrose Avenue, in Los Angeles, in the late 1980s.
I was shooting with Mosh some time back and we got to talking about Vargas. Mosh has the classic combo of wholesome and sweet, yet sexy look that is characteristic of many of Vargas’ models. So we decided to create the classic pinup pose. What do you think? Did we do a good job capturing the spirit of the Vargas’ pinups?
