Vintage photographers and their AKAs - A notebook
 

My intention for this thread is that it be used for noting hopefully useful information about skin or porn (mainly magazine) photographers--& please note this is in the vintage section. I'm particularly interested in any evidence or observations regarding AKAs or aliases for such photographers. I do not want to find out photographers' "real" names but I do want to find information relevant to their work--e.g. that photographer X published under that name in mag. A but often under the name Y in mag. B, and so forth.

Please do not simply post examples of photographer's work--there are other threads for that such as here (vintage) and here (modern). Instead what I envisage is posts primarily concerned with information and possibly some scans or links to any relevant evidence, whether photographic or otherwise. As such it may be fairly "rough-and-ready" which is why I've called it a "notebook".

Please note that the types of evidence I envisage being posted here are often likely to be circumstantial. There will be plenty of shades of grey even when their work is in full colour.:rolleyes: It will also sometimes be contradictory.:o:( My hope is that any information collected here, even if its use is not always immediately apparent, may become useful in the future as it accumulates.

Relevant discussion or contributions from others will be most welcome :):thumbsup: but I'd prefer posts to be reasonably well-focused, i.e. if you want to talk about, say, three different photographers then in most cases it will be best to make three separate posts one about each, except where those overlaps are important or relevant to your points.

At present there are no plans to "organise" this thread e.g. by creating an index but that may change if and as it evolves--and that is the main reason for wanting posts to mostly stick to single photographers.

My thanks to Name-Hunter and Decadence for their encouragement and suggestions regarding getting this thread started.:thumbsup:

edit: thread processed with halvar's tool.

OK, here's an example of what I mean.

Barry Vincent was a regular photographer in Men Only dating from around 1977. He was credited in Club (US), 1978-03 for a set of Shawn Carney as Honey--she wore a distinctive gold jacket.

Below is a single pic. of Shawn Carney wearing that same gold jacket and named as Monica in Rapport (Dk) no.39, 1981 thanks to linefeet. The photographic credit is given as Bob Veze.
I think I've seen the name Bob Veze in various places but as one example he seemed to have regular credits in Adam (US) magazine starting from 1975.

So, the above suggests that Barry Vincent = Bob Veze, right? Well, this is not (yet) certain. Magazines did sometimes mix up their photographic credits and sometimes sets were purchased & re-sold via agencies or other such intermediaries making the picture sometimes rather cloudy--yeah, sorry about the pun, kind of.:rolleyes:

What it is, instead, is a possible clue that may (hopefully) pay off later. It implies a linkage between those two names.

The photographer Hank Londoner has a lot of aliases/AKAs. Some use the HL initials pattern, some use the capital cities pattern, some use the Frank X pattern.

• Harry Linden: Club International (UK) 21-05, 1992; Mayfair 30-10, 1995.
• Henry Londoner: Annabel Cawston in Mayfair 23-08, 1988-08.
• Huey Louis, for example see here: Knave 23-10, 1991; Fiesta 28-10, 1994; Two Blue 01-01, 1995; Teazer 01-02, 1996.
• Frank Anderson: Jessica James in Mayfair 31-06, 1996; Men Only 62-12, 1997.
• Frank Palmer, credits on SuzeR website including this set stamped as Hank Londoner: AUPH 1992-12.
• Frank Patterson: Nikki Johnson in AUPH 1990-01 similar to set as Nikki in PHUS 1989-09 credited to Hank Londoner.
• Jamie Crain: see here.
• Jim Paris, for example see here: Gallery, 1985-06; Fox, 1993-06.
• Chuck Waggoner: Club (US), 1990-05; Men Only 56-11, 1991; Club Confidential, 1993-03; Men's World 05-10, 1993.
• Suzy Waggoner: Club (US), 1992-08.

A recent find, thanks to Clem, is that it is possible Hank Londoner = Rupert Daines.

There is a set of Deja Scott from AUPH 1995-08 here credited to Hank Londoner--his most common Penthouse handle--but that same/related set in Model Directory 14-12, 1996 here is credited to Rupert Daines.

So, did Model Directory simply mix up the credits? If not then HL/RD was a very busy bee.:eek:

Further on Rupert Daines.

Here is Laurie from Club International (UK) 05-04, 1976-04, photog. Rupert Daines, thanks to capdowling. NB, yes, I know capdowling originally posted it in the Club (US) thread but it's actually from CIUK as shown here at Cream Cheese.
I'm showing just the first and last pages because the evidence is the photog. name (Rupert Daines) & the setting in the last pic.

Now then, a different model so please (temporarily) ignore the model and focus upon the setting. Lenka Novak as Olivia Paddon in Penthouse (UK) 08-08, 1973-11, photog. by Hans Larsson as shown here and in the following post thanks to otokonomidori. Note that the photographer credit is not shown in those scans but can be seen here:
That same setting appeared on the cover of PHUK 09-10, 1975-01, see here.

This is quite circumstantial, and maybe I'm simply mistaken, but I think that's the same setting (tiles, as well as wall) as where Laurie was photographed by Rupert Daines. The ~2.5 year gap between the publication of the two sets is a bit worrying but not excessively so in the world of skin mags.

So, does that mean that Rupert Daines = Hans Larsson? At present it is only a maybe but iff [sic] Rupert Daines = Hank Londoner then I'm ever so slightly less surprised because it then seems like another repeat of the HL pattern. For now, though, that's purely speculation. NB, the first "Hank Londoner" credit (in PHUS) was 1977-08.

Men Only 44-05, 1979-05 included a feature titled "Flashes of brilliance" about their then regular photographers. It's quite disappointing because it divulges very little about the photographers.:( Scans thanks to Cream Cheese.

https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-1.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-2.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-3.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-4.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-5.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-6.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-7.jpg https://t35.pixhost.to/thumbs/431/12...illiance-8.jpg

The photographers:

• Amnon Bar-Tur. Israeli but at time US-based (New York). Previously in Penthouse (UK) and more-widely in Club International (UK). I think UK- or Europe-based, prior to US?
• Barry Vincent. US-based (Los Angeles).
• Mike Bramman. Worked in the US as an art director. Then making TV commercials in Germany.
• Clive McLean. US-based. Frequently in Hustler.
• Rupert Daines. Reveals nothing at all. Does "rarely seen in the offices of the magazine" mean he's based outside the UK? /shrug/
• Art Mancini. US-based (Los Angeles). Learnt from Fred Enke. Has published in Playboy including a PMOM.
• Dwight Fox. UK-based.
• Fred Enke. US-based (West coast). d.1977.

Another vef member once kindly shared with me a link to a page about US female photographer R.B. Kane. Sadly, that page has had its content about her removed and I did not think to save a copy of the text or the picture of her that it showed.:( Nor is it accessible through the wayback machine. I think it dated from roughly the early-2000s and if forced to guess I suppose she looked to be perhaps in her mid-40s, though I'm not very good at visually assessing people's ages.:o

The text on the page was quite disappointing, mainly going on about how she really knew what turned men on, e.g. showing lots of pink, because she was a woman--i.e. in a quite "laddish" style reminiscent of the garbage write-ups that accompany so many pictorials.:rolleyes:

Anyway, so far these are the earliest credits I've been able to find for R.B. Kane:

Club (US), 1979-12
Knave 1980-03
Men Only 1979-10 - Meryl
Men Only 1981-04
Swank 1983-06
Velvet 1983-12
Club International (UK) 1984-05
Adam (US) 1986-12.

There are also later (1990s) credits in magazines for RBK International, RBK Productions, or just RBK (2002), as well as more instances of R.B. Kane. I don't know for sure but perhaps those are all by the same person?

Oddly, Adam (US) credits sets from 1966-10 to 1975-11 to a photographer named RBK. I find it difficult to imagine they can have all been the same person as then she would likely have to have been born in 1948 if not earlier, i.e. aged in her mid-50s by the early-2000s. On the other hand it seems a quite distinctive name or set of initials.:confused:

John Copeland was a US-based photographer for Penthouse since 1977. He was based in Germany from c.1981-88, working for both Penthouse (De) and Playboy (De) before shifting back to the US (California).

He owned the pixotna company/brand & website.

He now is linked to this website & studio in Las Vegas. Here's his bio. page, including some slightly different (probably more accurate?) dates for all the moves.

Some known AKAs:

Jo[h]n Harro[l]l -- i.e. Australian Penthouse sometimes left out the H &/or one of the Ls.
John Midi
Patsy Smile
Jack Callis -- in Hustler Rejects 08, 1984

Oddly, although AUPH mostly used the John Harroll name they included a feature about him under the name John Copeland in 1994-10 here in which they acknowledged the varied names... but did not explain the reason for them.:confused:

Years ago I had a '60's issue of Figure Photography Quarterly (same publisher as Modern Man) with a feature about a husband/wife team named Rudy (or Rudi) & Blanca (or Bianca), surname *** They had come to Cal from Eastern Europe & were the RBK in Modern Man, Adam & other mags, 60's into mid 70's.
Later 70's that name seemed to disappear. Then '80's & 90's "R.B. Kane", with completely different style (90's vs. 70') & maybe even xxx iirc.
I oc wondered same thing you are asking & saw the "she" somewhere. Seemed possible a - their daughter, b- Blanca as (like Bunny Yaeger) an active senior, or c - someone named Kane, unrelated, but playing off the RB name. Complete coincidence seemed least likely.
Ca. 2000+/-, when I still thought the web might have this kind of info, I tried to search it. Unsuccessful then & I'm sure it hasn't got any better.
They were obviously important in history of "figure" & men's mags. Hard to believe in the "Information Age", it's lost.

Edit ***: Correct spelling is Kratochvil (Rudy & Blanca) per that mag, FPQ #44, Fall '65. Having correct spelling does not change the fact that 'Net Knows Nothing.

I agree. Photographers that had long careers would of course evolve their style somewhat to suit the times/mags/market but I'm not sure it would change terribly dramatically. I'm no expert on R.B. Kane's style but by the 1990s at least some of what little I've seen of her work seemed perhaps rather "raunchy" and "hard", almost prefiguring gonzo-porn? I don't simply or just mean "explicit" but more mannered, unbending, almost focused upon chopped-up body parts rather than mid-1970s-style whole-body beauty. Perhaps even snarling more often than smiling--or am I being too harsh?:rolleyes:

I have seen a lot of RB Kane's digital work. [Note that she never uses periods after her initials]
Invariably it is glam and nylons...the kind of work you see in LegSex Mag.
I would be shocked and a bit embarrassed by my lack of observation if I actually saw 'explicit' or 'raunchy' or 'gonzo' from her.

That being said, I never looked too deeply into her or her history.