Nude Photography
Completely unexpected, in 1982 JH got a call from the German edition of PLAYBOY magazine. Many photographers from around the world tried to get commissions from PLAYBOY, but JH never had had contact to that people. And now they called him.
The reason was that the editor-in-chief of the German edition had seen a photo made by JH, the German model Martina shot at a hidden place in Malaysia (see picture on the right), and he is supposed to have said “I want that man!“
The editor-in-chief invited him for a talk to MUNICH and told him he had two wishes. If JH could fulfill one of them, they would be in business.
One wish was to get Hanna Schygulla to undress for PLAYBOY. Hanna was at that time the muse of the famous independent German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and already an international movie star. JH had to answer in the negative. He knew Hanna, and he was sure she wouldn't do that at all.
The other wish was to get a LUFTHANSA flight attendend for PLAYBOY magazine. The editor-in-chief had investigated and found out that no stewardess of this airline, founded already in 1926, had ever been seen on nude photos. PLAYBOY wanted to be the first to do so.
Wow.
But then JH remembered he knew one. On a flight, a stewardess had approached the well-known photographer, asking him for an autograph and also gave him a sedcard of her - she also was a model on the side.
And she was only too happy to undress for PLAYBOY.
JH shot the cover story of LUFTHANSA flight attendend Gabi Annicette which caused an uproar in national and international media. PLAYBOY editions ’round the world printed the story of Gabi.
And LUFTHANSA and PLAYBOY made a deal:
large billboards with the PLAYBOY cover were posted in all German airports:
"Fly with Gabi…"
The success was tremendous, for PLAYBOY, for LUFTHANSA, and for JH, and over night he became a globally known photographer for girl photography.
This led to assignments from the big “girl magazines“ from around the world - the global magazines PLAYBOY and PENTHOUSE, French LUI and NEWLOOK, Italian EXCELSIOR, Hong Kong SCOOP and many more from all five continents.
As a consequence, JH made “girl photography“ his future main occupation.
In the following years and decades, JHs girl photography became published globally. But not only in magazines, he also still did lots of fashion photography for lingerie and cosmetics advertisements and catalouges.
JH invented the photo genre "Nude In The City" by photographing famous actrice Beatrice Fiedler naked for three days in the city of HAMBURG. Many have tried to copy him since, but the original with the breathtakingly lascivious Bea remained unrivalled.
Left, in Germany at the NDR talk show, with chanson singer Ute Lemper, tv host Margarete Schreinemaker and others, right, in the US with Oprah Winfrey.
For many years JH operated photo studios in HAMBURG and HOLLYWOOD at the same time, mainly for fashion and lingerie photography, for advertising and catalouges, but also for high class nude photography.
Although PLAYBOY Germany had "discovered" him for professional nude photography, after a dozen or so assignments JH soon stopped working for this magazine. Envy, jealousy and intrigues he encountered there led him to turn to the PLAYBOY editions of other countries and to the other big magazines worldwide, which ran this business much more professionally. Especially since the payment at PLAYBOY Germany was more symbolic than appropriate. "It was provincial, and it became rather unpleasant" JH once said in an interview.
SEE also JH's comments on this business under "The Impact".
Finding beautiful women who loved to be shot naked for big magazines was no problem. Many applied to the now famous photographer, girls next door, models, celebrities - but only a few met the standards of him and the magazine editors.
JH was often amazed at the breadth of distribution and the impact the magazines had worldwide.
Although it was mainly the girls' photos that were published, not his face, it was not unusual for him to be approached. But perhaps this was not least due to his unusual name. Be it on a plane, be it at the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong, be it during his first visit to the famous lingerie shop "Trashys" in Hollywood, where he was immediately recognized by the excited beautiful salesgirls... Sometimes he was really embarrassed, but of course it had the advantage that some interesting contacts were made, also to potential models (of which especially in Hollywood there is really no lack).
His urge for travel, freedom and adventure could be fulfilled very well in this way, and he often combined an assignment shooting somewhere in the world with subsequent outdoor nude and wildlife photography.
Commenting on his success as a girl or nude photographer, JH says:
"There was luck, too. There were of course quite some other very good photographers in this genre. And, of course, one had to have a comprehensive command of the photographic craft. Because photography is nothing but a craft, and photographers who think of themselves as artists have not understood something.
But, things were as important as to be at the right place at the right time, to have the right and sensitive contact to nude models with perfect bodies and beautiful faces (not only pretty - beautiful!), no matter if amateur or top or supermodels, to meet the right people in this business and to understand their vague ideas and implement them in such a way that they were one hundred, even a thousand percent satisfied, and also and above all to decide with whom to do business and with whom not (there were and are many half-silk types in this scene, publishers of magazines and others, most of which fortunately no longer exist today because of their way of doing business) also were deciding factors.
Not only being a photographer but also a businessman, I underwent a hard process of learning. But this process was also part of my success.”
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