Art in Playboy

[Donna Tavoso]

I think what is crucial for Playboy in the debate of artwork
vs. photography is to find the right balance.  In my opinion in the
past there was too much artwork, much of it I found would turn me off
to a story before I even read it -- I always felt like the magazine
was holding on to its tradition of using art work simply for the sake
of holding on to the tradition.

I was really happy to see lots of photographs -- that was really clear
to me when the carictures disappeared from the music poll and were
actually replaced with pictures of the artists.  And I beleive that
there should be more photographs than drawings in the magazine on the
whole.

However, I would be extremely disappointed if the artwork disappeared
from the magazine completely.  I wonder if perhaps it is too expensive
and perhaps time consuming to discover the talent needed for these
pieces.

One positive note, I noticed on playboy.com that they were inviting
college students to submit artwork, photographs and/or writing to
commemorate Playboy's 50th anniversary - I think this might be a great
way to find some new talent and spotlight Playboy's belief that young
people today do read, write and do all sorts of creative things and
are just as interested in being well rounded as the generations that
went before them.  I think it should be exciting to see what they
receive.

Donna