Australian Penthouse

J. Stephen Hicks

Why did you become a photographer?

I was 19 and had saved for a trip to California. My buddy couldn’t go at the last minute, so I decided to buy myself a 35mm SLR instead. The rest is history: complete love, surrender and devotion.

Why shoot nudes?

My first love was colour nature photography, but I was always very girl-crazy. It slowly became more obvious that I would start shooting girls.

What about Penthouse? Were you a part of the Guccione clique?

Yeah, I was totally a part of the clique. I was pretty young when I started doing stuff with Penthouse. I think that they were in a place where they needed some fresh, creative blood. Somebody called and told me I should start submitting to them. I think it was really good timing. Bob needed somebody new and young. We had a great relationship.

What’s kept you shooting over the years?

Easy: I love photography. I love it like a painter loves paint. It’s the only way I truly express myself. When I’m shooting a girl and things are clicking, I think I’m expressing myself as a creative being as well as I can. And I love the digital revolution; it’s liberated me, and allowed me to be more complete as an artist. When I do shoot on film, it feels like riding a donkey to work instead of driving a Mercedes.

What do you take pride in?

I take pride in quality. And treating my staff and models with dignity; 95 per cent of photographers today don’t do it for a love of photography or art. I don’t think it’s for a love of beautiful women, either. They do it for money. Money, money, money.

Have the models changed over the years?

I don’t think they’ve changed much. I think they’re more willing to do hardcore these days because the Internet has driven everything that way. There are fewer good softcore girls now. Five, seven years ago, there was an amazing influx of Eastern European women who were mind-blowing in terms of beauty and attitude. But now the US government has laws that don’t allow them to come here.

www.digitaldesire.com

Hank Londoner

How did you get into the industry?

I was a fashion photographer in New York. I did fashion editorials for the biggest magazines in the country. One day, the art director of Penthouse called me after one of their photographers got sick, and I took over as a favour. For 13 years, I travelled all over the world—any country, anything I wanted. All I had to do was get approval for the girl. It was the best years of my life.

What style of photographer are you?

I’ve put my life in danger many, many times in order to get the right picture, so in that way I’m dedicated. I’m an outdoors photographer. I want to rough it, and to rock it up more than usual. There are two kinds of photographers: ones who take pictures and ones who make pictures. I’m a photographer who makes pictures. Everything I do is preconceived. I think about what I do. I plan it, I get the props, I drag them all over the world…in order to get the shot. There needs to be a story—an element of danger, an element of humour, something exciting and original—instead of a girl sitting on a bed sticking her fingers in her pussy.

What do you think of magazines today?

I feel that if somebody would come out right now and change the look of the magazines, and grow some balls, people will go to the stands and buy them. There’s no question about it.

So what’s the problem, specifically?

A major problem is that [publishers] are scared of taking risks nowadays—taking chances on something unexpected—because they’re afraid of how it might affect circulation and sales. I was chatting with Bob Guccione once, and he asked me to shoot a girl-girl pictorial. Originally, I said “no”, that I’d pass out from nerves, and Bob said: “Mark my words, in 10 years it won’t be something people bother talking about”. I learned that it’s a lot easier to shoot two girls than one!

www.pinkfever.com

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