UK amateurs camera club models

kw isnotit · November 20th, 2012, 12:57 PM

I know this is a long first post, but please bear with me as there is a point.
A few weeks back, I bumped into my ex-girlfriend. We went out together for nearly ten years, but I hadn’t seen her for ages. It was good to see her and chat, but we’d both moved on so it was really just “see you around” as we said goodbye. Anyway, this brings me to the reason of this post. Back in the mid 80’s, when I first got together with her, she posed for a friend of her dads who was a photographer and ran a shop and small studio that she worked in during the summer before she started college. Naively, I assumed it was portrait work, as that was a big part of his business, but it turned out it was glamour/topless. She was always honest with me, so as soon as she realized my confusion, she told me the truth. I was pretty mad to start with, but as I’d only just started dating her, she quite rightly told me it was not my decision and she was entitled to do it if she wanted to. Thinking back, the whole situation was bizarre to say the least. It didn’t really occur to me that the guy might be getting his rocks off with it and I just thought he was doing it for some sought of artistic reason, which may of course have been true as well. The other thing that was weird was that at that point she’d never even gone topless on holiday and was still a virgin until I met her. She wasn’t a prude, but certainly didn’t dress to show herself off. She was quite good looking, but wasn’t really model material, although she was fairly large chested, which is probably why she was asked to pose in the first place. The simple answer to why she did it was for the money. I think he paid her about 20 pounds for a couple of hours work, which was quite a lot back then. I don’t think her dad ever knew, as I can’t imagine he’d have been pleased. The guy ran a camera club in the town and a few months later asked if she’d pose for them, but by then we’d got more serious and she’d lost interest in doing anymore. I didn’t get to see the pictures at the time, but a while later I spoke to him at some social gathering. He was a complete tosser and gave me some crap about confidentiality, even though she was my girlfriend. I did get to see some test prints later when we visited his place together one weekend. They were pretty good from what I remember. Anyway, this guy died about 7 or 8 years ago and shorty after I got friendly with one of his sons who I happen to be working with. I never mentioned that my ex-girlfriend had posed for his father, but I did ask what he had done with all his dads’ photos as the business closed when he passed away. He told me that he and his brother had moved everything back to the house and had a bloody big bonfire in the garden. As you can imagine, I was disappointed, although not entirely surprised given the circumstances. I’m not sure how I could have approached it anyway, given she was my ex and as they were from 20 odd years ago, the chances are that the pictures had long since been destroyed. Until I saw her recently, it hadn’t really crossed my mind to search for similar stuff on the internet. There must have been dozens, if not hundreds of clubs like that one throughout the country and many women must have posed in that time. My ex-girlfriend knew of a girl at her college who had done the same thing in another town.
So, apart from the odd poorly scanned shot that I stumbled across, there does seem to be very little out there.
Is this because:

1, There’s a legal reason
2, As this was many years ago they may have been lost or destroyed
3, Most of the men were middle aged and might not be around anymore.
4, They might not have the technical ability or equipment to digitize their work.
5, They may see it as a betrayal to the women themselves.

Any feedback would be appreciated. I’d also be interested to hear of others experiences. Did you belong to one of these clubs? Or did you know someone who modeled for them?
Again, sorry for the long post

JeffThrow · November 20th, 2012, 02:34 PM

Interesting post. Speaking for myself, I shot some paid models in the early 90s - still on 35mm. They advertised through the back pages of the London Weekly Advertiser. I was never asked what the shots were for. Legally, I would have owned them and could have done with them what I wanted, which AFAIK is still the case. However professional photographers tend to get contracts signed (especially nowadays) because they need proof of age. Also, it prevents a model trying to sue claiming they were told something else.

Anyway, my pics all went when I moved in with my (now) wife, and I would guess 80% of the material you mention went a similar way. It's a shame really - especially when my wife now tells me she wishes I had kept it !

I had about 6 sets of solo girls, a couple of lesbian sets and 3 different couples. I was getting quite good at it too.

kw isnotit · November 20th, 2012, 06:35 PM

Thanks for the quick reply. It never occurred to me that she might have signed some sort of contract. As for the girls that posed for the club, I got the impression that it was about half a dozen blokes in a room, taking turns in how they set things up. I also got the impression that it was pretty soft-core stuff. My ex certainly didn’t go fully nude for him and it never came up when she was asked the second time. She was probably just about 18 at the time, so it may have been different with someone older. These days we think of girls that do this as being a certain type, but back then with very high unemployment and no money around, it would have been more appealing and with no internet, there wouldn’t have been any real comebacks. I know I called this guy a tosser, but he was to be fair discrete. On a couple of occasions he processed films for us, as he did for the rest of her family. There was never anything more than an odd topless shot on a beach while on holiday, but I’m now glad we went to him, rather than send them to one of those postal services, as I did that once and they got lost.

Going back to the main subject, you’re probably right about many being lost over time, but I still think it’s surprising that no one has posted a good collection online. Maybe when I finally get round to building that time machine, I’ll do something about it.

November 20th, 2012, 12:57 PM	#1
kw isnotit Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 4 Thanks: 1 Thanked 43 Times in 4 Posts	UK amateurs camera club models I know this is a long first post, but please bear with me as there is a point. A few weeks back, I bumped into my ex-girlfriend. We went out together for nearly ten years, but I hadn’t seen her for ages. It was good to see her and chat, but we’d both moved on so it was really just “see you around” as we said goodbye. Anyway, this brings me to the reason of this post. Back in the mid 80’s, when I first got together with her, she posed for a friend of her dads who was a photographer and ran a shop and small studio that she worked in during the summer before she started college. Naively, I assumed it was portrait work, as that was a big part of his business, but it turned out it was glamour/topless. She was always honest with me, so as soon as she realized my confusion, she told me the truth. I was pretty mad to start with, but as I’d only just started dating her, she quite rightly told me it was not my decision and she was entitled to do it if she wanted to. Thinking back, the whole situation was bizarre to say the least. It didn’t really occur to me that the guy might be getting his rocks off with it and I just thought he was doing it for some sought of artistic reason, which may of course have been true as well. The other thing that was weird was that at that point she’d never even gone topless on holiday and was still a virgin until I met her. She wasn’t a prude, but certainly didn’t dress to show herself off. She was quite good looking, but wasn’t really model material, although she was fairly large chested, which is probably why she was asked to pose in the first place. The simple answer to why she did it was for the money. I think he paid her about 20 pounds for a couple of hours work, which was quite a lot back then. I don’t think her dad ever knew, as I can’t imagine he’d have been pleased. The guy ran a camera club in the town and a few months later asked if she’d pose for them, but by then we’d got more serious and she’d lost interest in doing anymore. I didn’t get to see the pictures at the time, but a while later I spoke to him at some social gathering. He was a complete tosser and gave me some crap about confidentiality, even though she was my girlfriend. I did get to see some test prints later when we visited his place together one weekend. They were pretty good from what I remember. Anyway, this guy died about 7 or 8 years ago and shorty after I got friendly with one of his sons who I happen to be working with. I never mentioned that my ex-girlfriend had posed for his father, but I did ask what he had done with all his dads’ photos as the business closed when he passed away. He told me that he and his brother had moved everything back to the house and had a bloody big bonfire in the garden. As you can imagine, I was disappointed, although not entirely surprised given the circumstances. I’m not sure how I could have approached it anyway, given she was my ex and as they were from 20 odd years ago, the chances are that the pictures had long since been destroyed. Until I saw her recently, it hadn’t really crossed my mind to search for similar stuff on the internet. There must have been dozens, if not hundreds of clubs like that one throughout the country and many women must have posed in that time. My ex-girlfriend knew of a girl at her college who had done the same thing in another town. So, apart from the odd poorly scanned shot that I stumbled across, there does seem to be very little out there. Is this because: 1, There’s a legal reason 2, As this was many years ago they may have been lost or destroyed 3, Most of the men were middle aged and might not be around anymore. 4, They might not have the technical ability or equipment to digitize their work. 5, They may see it as a betrayal to the women themselves. Any feedback would be appreciated. I’d also be interested to hear of others experiences. Did you belong to one of these clubs? Or did you know someone who modeled for them? Again, sorry for the long post

November 20th, 2012, 02:34 PM	#2
JeffThrow Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: UK Posts: 278 Thanks: 895 Thanked 2,138 Times in 218 Posts	Interesting post. Speaking for myself, I shot some paid models in the early 90s - still on 35mm. They advertised through the back pages of the London Weekly Advertiser. I was never asked what the shots were for. Legally, I would have owned them and could have done with them what I wanted, which AFAIK is still the case. However professional photographers tend to get contracts signed (especially nowadays) because they need proof of age. Also, it prevents a model trying to sue claiming they were told something else. Anyway, my pics all went when I moved in with my (now) wife, and I would guess 80% of the material you mention went a similar way. It's a shame really - especially when my wife now tells me she wishes I had kept it ! I had about 6 sets of solo girls, a couple of lesbian sets and 3 different couples. I was getting quite good at it too. __________________ Seeking :"Nightbirds #1", "Whiteheat #2", (UK mags)

November 20th, 2012, 06:35 PM	#3
kw isnotit Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 4 Thanks: 1 Thanked 43 Times in 4 Posts	Thanks for the quick reply. It never occurred to me that she might have signed some sort of contract. As for the girls that posed for the club, I got the impression that it was about half a dozen blokes in a room, taking turns in how they set things up. I also got the impression that it was pretty soft-core stuff. My ex certainly didn’t go fully nude for him and it never came up when she was asked the second time. She was probably just about 18 at the time, so it may have been different with someone older. These days we think of girls that do this as being a certain type, but back then with very high unemployment and no money around, it would have been more appealing and with no internet, there wouldn’t have been any real comebacks. I know I called this guy a tosser, but he was to be fair discrete. On a couple of occasions he processed films for us, as he did for the rest of her family. There was never anything more than an odd topless shot on a beach while on holiday, but I’m now glad we went to him, rather than send them to one of those postal services, as I did that once and they got lost. Going back to the main subject, you’re probably right about many being lost over time, but I still think it’s surprising that no one has posted a good collection online. Maybe when I finally get round to building that time machine, I’ll do something about it.