How much of my affinity for the 80s and 90s is due to the fact that I was a hormonal teen/young man at the time? How much is due to better photography and art direction?
I ask myself this very question all the time (I was born in 1978), and I've come to believe the answer is the latter: The photos in the 80s and 90s were simply better.
If it was just a matter of nostalgia for one's hormonal teenage years, then you would expect to see lots of men in their thirties on the Internet talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 2000s." And you'd expect lots of men in their 60s on the Internet talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 1970s." And so forth.
But as far as I can tell...that's not what you see! What you DO see is tons and tons of men in their 40s talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 1980s/1990s"!
And by the way the same is true for women: Bellazon and Pinterest and YouTube are chock full of adult women longing for the days of American Elle, early 90s Versace runway shows, the Original Supermodels, etc.
I'd say it all came down to Jule having a consistent vision of what she wanted the issue to be. The locations, models and photographers may have all changed from year to year, but Jule knew what she wanted (and what the readers wanted).
BTW, has any model ever arched their back to greater effect than Ashley? Good Lord.
I ask myself this very question all the time (I was born in 1978), and I've come to believe the answer is the latter: The photos in the 80s and 90s were simply better.
ReplyDeleteIf it was just a matter of nostalgia for one's hormonal teenage years, then you would expect to see lots of men in their thirties on the Internet talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 2000s." And you'd expect lots of men in their 60s on the Internet talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 1970s." And so forth.
But as far as I can tell...that's not what you see! What you DO see is tons and tons of men in their 40s talking about the "good old days of swimsuit photography in the 1980s/1990s"!
And by the way the same is true for women: Bellazon and Pinterest and YouTube are chock full of adult women longing for the days of American Elle, early 90s Versace runway shows, the Original Supermodels, etc.
I'd say it all came down to Jule having a consistent vision of what she wanted the issue to be. The locations, models and photographers may have all changed from year to year, but Jule knew what she wanted (and what the readers wanted).
ReplyDeleteBTW, has any model ever arched their back to greater effect than Ashley? Good Lord.