Dwight Hooker

Dwight Hooker is a photographer for Playboy magazine. He was, at times, described as a master of the sensual and the erotic along with photographers Helmut Newton and J. Frederick Smith.[1][2] Lenna, the standard test image for image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications, was photographed by him.[3][4]

Contents

Career milestones

Hooker photographed the centerfold featuring Lena Söderberg for the best-selling edition of the magazine. That November 1972 edition issue of Playboy sold 7,161,561 copies.[5] A cropped image from that pictorial known as Lenna became the standard test image for image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications, was photographed by him.[3][4]

He came up and photographed the commercial campaign "What sort of a man reads Playboy?",[6] which became an example of sociodemographic segmentation for advertisement[7] and was ruled as "not obscene" by the US Supreme Court.[8]

His other career milestones feature the twins Madeleine and Mary Collinson (the first twin Playmates on Playboy,[9] for cover and centerfold of the same October 1970 issue), Lena Söderberg (including the image known as Lenna), Marilyn Cole (the first Playmate to pose for a full frontal nude centerfold[9] and the first Briton to hold the title of Playmate of the Year), Jayne Marie Mansfield (daughter of Jayne Mansfield), Candy Loving (the 25th Anniversary Playmate), Monica Tidwell (the first Playmate to be younger than Playboy[9]), Nancy Cameron (the 20th Anniversary Playmate and the only Playmate to have a back and front double-sided centerfold[10]), Marilyn Lange (both her Playmate of the Month and Playmate of the Year layouts for May 1974 and June 1975 issues respectively) and Jill De Vries (the first Playmate with signed centerfold[9]).

Hooker's notable assignments include Playmate and Playboy bunny Barbi Benton (actress and singer who was Hugh Hefner's girlfriend[11]) and Emmy and Golden Globe award winning actor Alan Alda.

Life

He mentored other Playboy photographers like Stephen Wayda.[12] He shot the cover for the first paperback edition of Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words, published in 1974, with model Mercy Rooney.[13] He is also reported to have the record number rejections for a Playboy photographer when Hugh Hefner, the publisher, rejected 500 photographs for a centerfold.[14][15]

Later in life he retired as an architect in Sundance, Utah[12] and a regular celebrity at the Sundance Film Festival.[16]

Playboy work

Playboy centerfolds

  1. Shay Knuth: September 1969
  2. Jennifer Liano: May 1970
  3. Mary and Madeleine Collinson: October 1970
  4. Avis Miller: November 1970
  5. Carol Imhof: December 1970
  6. Crystal K. Smith: September 1971
  7. Danielle de Vabre: November 1971
  8. Ellen Michaels: March 1972
  9. Deanna Baker: May 1972
  10. Lenna Sjööblom (also known as Lena Söderberg): November 1972
  11. Marilyn Cole: June 1973 (Playmate of Year, along with Richard Fegley, Larry Dale Gordon and Alexas Urba)
  12. Monica Tidwell: November 1973
  13. Nancy Cameron: January 1974
  14. Marilyn Lange: May 1974
  15. Jean Manson: August 1974
  16. Marilyn Lange: June 1975 (Playmate of Year)
  17. Lillian Müller: August 1975
  18. Jill De Vries: October 1975
  19. Laura Lyons: February 1976
  20. Kathy Morrison: May 1978
  21. Candy Loving: January 1979
  22. Louann Fernald: June 1979

Playboy covers

  1. Barbara Klein: July 1969
  2. Shay Knuth: September 1969
  3. Jean Bell, Lorrie Menconi, Kathy MacDonald, Shay Knuth, Leslie Bianchini: January 1970 (along with Don Klumpp, Bill Figge, David Chan, Mario Casilli)
  4. Norma Bauer: February 1970
  5. Barbi Benton: March 1970
  6. Phyllis Babila: May 1970
  7. Mary and Madeleine Collinson: October 1970
  8. Crystal Smith: November 1970
  9. Mary and Madeleine Collinson, Jennifer Liano, Debbie Ellison, Sharon Clark: January 1971 (along with Pompeo Posar, Bill Figge and Edward DeLong)
  10. Christy Miller: August 1971
  11. Crystal Smith: September 1971
  12. Debbie Hanlon: November 1971
  13. Rosie Holotik: April 1972
  14. Crystal Smith: September 1972
  15. Mercy Rooney: March 1973
  16. Marilyn Cole: June 1973
  17. Karen Christy: February 1974
  18. Ester Cordet, Bebe Buell, Marilyn Lange, Francine Parks, Nancy Cameron and Kristine Hanson: January 1975 (along with Richard Fegley, Mario Casilli, David Chan)
  19. Marilyn Lange: June 1975
  20. Jill De Vries: February 1976
  21. Lisa Sohm: April 1977

Playmate pictorials

  1. Shay Knuth: September 1969
  2. Jennifer Liano: May 1970
  3. Madeleine Collinson and Mary Collinson: October 1970
  4. Avis Miller: November 1970
  5. Carol Imhof: December 1970
  6. Crystal Smith: September 1971
  7. Ellen Michaels: March 1972
  8. Lenna Sjööblom: November 1972
  9. Monica Tidwell: November 1973 (along with Bill Frantz)
  10. Nancy Cameron: January 1974
  11. Marilyn Lange: May 1974
  12. Jeane Manson: August 1974
  13. Lillian Müller: August 1975 (along with Suze Randall)
  14. Jill De Vries: October 1975
  15. Laura Lyons: February 1976 (along with Mario Casilli)
  16. Kathryn Morrison: May 1978 (along with Phillip Dixon)
  17. Candy Loving: January 1979
  18. Louann Fernald: June 1979

Books

Christina Series

A book series on imaginary heiress Christina van Bell by Blakely St. James, a pseudonym for multiple authors including Robin Leonard, Charles Platt, Ted Gottfried, William E Butterworth, and Hart Williams. Covers and back-covers of the series was done by Hooker. The model for all of the books is Jill De Vries.

Other books

External links

References

  1. ^ A. D. Coleman and Sheer Grantz, The Photography A-V program directory, Photography Media Institute, 1980, ISBN 978-0-936524-00-9
  2. ^ Sean Callahan, Photographing sensuality, J. Frederick Smith, page 45, Crowell, 1975, ISBN 978-0-690-00781-7
  3. ^ a b Jon Tarrant, Understanding Digital Cameras: Getting the Best Image from Capture to Output, page 41, Focal Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-240-52024-7
  4. ^ a b Juergen Seitz, Digital watermarking for digital media, page 9, Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2005, ISBN 978-1-59140-518-4
  5. ^ Geek Love, the Lenna Story, Photoshop News, Adobe
  6. ^ "Home lessons", New York Post, June 4, 2010
  7. ^ Martin F. Kaplan and Steven Schwartz, Human judgment and decision processes in applied settings, page 233, Academic Press, 1977, ISBN 978-0-12-397240-8
  8. ^ United States Supreme Court reports, Volume 100, page 282, Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co., 1977
  9. ^ a b c d Playboy Playmates, Spiritus-Temporis
  10. ^ 20th Anniversary Playmate, Timeline
  11. ^ Hef's Special Ladies on Playboy.com
  12. ^ a b Abbey Hood, "Behind the lens of a Playboy photographer", Beverly Hills Courier
  13. ^ Robert A Wilson (editor), Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words, Playboy Press, 1974
  14. ^ Russell Miller, Bunny: The real story of Playboy, page 11, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985, ISBN 978-0-03-063748-3
  15. ^ Gene N. Landrum, Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion, page 161, Brendan Kelly Publishing Inc., 2004, ISBN 978-1-895997-23-1
  16. ^ Lory Smith, Party in a Box: Story of the Sundance Film Festival, page 41, Gibbs M. Smith Inc, December 1998, ISBN 0-87905-861-7