Overlooked pioneer Bunny Yeager left her modeling career to start a highly successful business as a pinup photographer. Once called “the world’s prettiest photographer,” she was the rare woman able to triumph in a world of male erotic portraiture. Her fascinating life and art are the subject of the new documentary “Naked Ambition,” which opens Friday, September 12 at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. Go here for show times and ticket information.
The breezy, fun, well-researched film tells the little-known story of a popular Miami model in the 1950s who, after marrying and becoming a mom, taught herself photography and started taking photos of women to sell to “cheesecake” magazines. She sold her photographs of model Bettie Page amongst animals in a nearby zoo to Playboy magazine becoming the first female photographer–indeed, one of the first photographers–for Hugh Hefner’s pioneering publication. (What ever you think of his personal misdeeds and philosophy, he championed the work of a lot of talented people.)
Bunny published a huge amount of work, including her own guides to photography; camera buff Sammy Davis, Jr. once accompanied her on a shoot to learn her technique. (Even the famous Sammy couldn’t accompany her in the same car–such was the extent of Jim Crow in that decade.) Directors Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch have reproduced a dazzling catalogue of her wonderful pictures, which are characterized by subjects exhibiting intense “personality,” one of Bunny’s friends remarks. Burlesque star Dita Von Teese credits Yeager with inspiring her career and praises her visual style (she used a lot of natural light) and the female empowerment she represents. Photographer Bruce Weber and Larry King (who began his career in Miami) are also huge fans. (King relates one anecdote–unrelated to Bunny–to illustrate how “loose” things were in Miami in the ’50s that, while funny, could probably have been replaced with something more pertinent in what is a very short–73 minutes–film.)
Sarahjane Blum, co-owner of the Grapefruit Moon Gallery, who bought Yeager’s entire work after her death, points out that “One thing that is more taboo than women’s sexuality and women’s bodies is women’s ambition.” And she definitely was! Bunny made films with her husband Bud Irwin; she also published work in mainstream women’s magazines. She was so famous she appeared on the popular TV game show “What’s My Line.” She has also been credited with popularizing the bikini and some even claim she invented the “selfie.”
Her two daughters have different takes on her work: Cherilu Duval wasn’t happy about her photography, while Lisa Irwin is proud of it. Yeager was once taken to trial for obscenity; she bought a copy of “Hustler” she found in the magazine stand inside the courthouse and used that contradiction to get the charges dropped. Her husband, an ex-cop, would later commit suicide–he believed his work in the internal affairs division may have contributed to his wife being charged.
She found art world recognition late in life; in 2010 the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh devoted a show to her work. Yeager died in 2014 at age 85 and “Naked Ambition” is a fascinating, entertaining (and fast-moving!) introduction to her enduring work and influence.