To: pml1@yahoogroups.com
From: Mark Tomlonson
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2003 09:56:06 -0400
Subject: [PML1] Classic Centerfold: Kathryn Morrison

Although we talk around it more than we talk about it on the PML, one of 
the undeniable attractions of the Playboy Centerfolds are their erotic 
appeal. What has always set Playboy apart from most other men's 
magazines is the class and finesse that their photographers and editors 
us to covey that eroticism. Further, there is the "girl-next-door" 
aspect. It's much more than just publishing pictures of "home-y" (no, I 
don't mean homely) women who are wearing few, if any clothes. It's the 
sometimes still-radical notion that the nice girl-next-door actually 
enjoys sex. All of these things are what make Dwight Hooker's May, 1978 
centerfold of Kathryn Morrison a Classic.

The underlying composition of this foldout is an essential part of its 
success. There is a dominant diagonal line running from the upper right 
to the middle left formed by Kathryn's head, torso and left thigh. That 
line is interrupted by an equally important line that is at a right 
angle to the first, formed by Kathryn's folded right leg and left calf. 
There are no lines that are anywhere near as strongly stated, and the 
result is a direct, strong, "in-your-face" composition.

Kathryn is sitting in a kitchen or a breakfast nook lit by the window 
behind her. She herself is lit from the front with a soft, even 
reflected light that imitates sunlight reflected from a wall. The light 
is "blue" enough to indicate that it's probably not really natural 
light, but anyone who has tried this at home has an appreciation for 
just how good a craftsman Dwight Hooker is.

The set is decorated with well-worn wood furniture, slate floors and 
mostly blue-patterned ceramics and cupboard doors, all pointing to a 
"provincial" kitchen. This is not a kitchen you would find in a 
Manhattan loft, nor in a Levittown tract house. This kitchen is in a 
country setting, in a comfortable house where the occupants, not an 
architect or decorator, have chosen the form and furnishings.

Kathryn's pink dress provides an excellent contrast to the blue and dark 
grey elements of the set, and her lovely tan skin works well not only 
with the furniture, but with the green and russet in the chair cushions. 
You wouldn't find that dress in "Elle" or "Vogue", but you would find it 
worn by some of the beautiful women on the street in 1978. About 20 
years ago I photographed a charming young lady in a dress much like 
Kathryn's, although my model was wearing it a little differently.

The way Kathryn is wearing her dress leaves no doubt in the viewer's 
mind as to why she's in the kitchen. The top of the dress has been 
pulled open, and Kathryn is lifting her skirt, revealing her genitals. 
Some Renaissance artists did portraits of the Madonna and Child that 
draw our eyes to the genitals of the Christ child in order to make a 
statement about God in human form. Dwight Hooker has arranged this 
photograph so that we cannot ignore the fact that Kathryn is a woman. 
The two major lines of the composition intersect at her crotch. Even if 
we're not male and heterosexual, it is almost impossible to look at this 
photograph without dealing with Kathryn's sexuality. We cannot escape 
that fact that this lovely woman, this woman who looks and dresses like 
and ordinary person, this woman that we might find living next to us, is 
a sexual being. And when we can pull our eyes away from those 
intersecting lines and look into her face, we find that not only does 
she have genitals, she knows what they are for. And she wants to put 
them to use in the very near future.

Even beyond that, her expression and body language tell us this is a 
woman who is on her own turf and is in charge. The viewer may share the 
same household or may be a guest, but Kathryn is not where she is and in 
the position she's in at our whim. We are there at her whim.

So what's the big deal? There's no great trick to manipulating the 
composition of a photograph to accent a woman's crotch - even the 
cheapest of Playboy's imitators can manage that. What males this 
centerfold a Playboy centerfold, what makes it a Classic, is that 
Kathryn is not portrayed by Dwight Hooker as a hooker. (Sorry, couldn't 
resist!) Not because of, and not in spite of her portrayal as a sexual 
being, but with that portrayal, Kathryn retains her "home-y-ness". As 
she issues a very direct sexual invitation, she still remains the shy 
young woman we see in the January 1979 issue giggling in a vacation 
photo with her boyfriend.

The Political Correctness of the '50's said that a woman who enjoyed 
sex, who demanded that sex be on her own terms, could not, by 
definition, be the kind of woman you'' take home to Mother, let alone 
the kind of woman you'd take with you to church. That old notion that 
"good girls don't" still threatens to creep back into current Political 
Correctness. Dwight Hooker has shown with his May 1978 centerfold of 
Kathryn Morrison that it was a lie in the '50's, it was a lie in the 
'70's, and it's still a lie today.

Mark Tomlonson
Kalamazoo MI