| Dwight Hooker | |
| Birth Date: | 22 June 1928 |
| Birth Place: | Albany, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Photographer, architect |
| Children: | 6 |
Dwight Hooker (June 22, 1928 – January 3, 2015) was an American photographer and architect. He was best known as a photographer for Playboy magazine and has been described as one of the masters of "the sensual and the erotic", along with photographers Helmut Newton and J. Frederick Smith.[1] [2] One of his photographs became the basis of Lenna, the standard test image for image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.[3] [4]
Hooker photographed the centerfold featuring Lena Söderberg for the best-selling edition of Playboy, the November 1972 edition issue, which 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.[3] [4]
Hooker originated and provided the photographs for the magazine's commercial campaign "What sort of a man reads Playboy?", which became an example of sociodemographic segmentation for advertising campaigns.[6] It featured young, educated and urban men who had money and were not averse to spending it and took pleasure as a duty.[7] [8] [9] The campaign, with its use of undressed men and women, was ruled by the US Supreme Court to be "not obscene", although the court decision did call it "offensive".[10]
Other milestones in Hooker's career include photographing the twins Madeleine and Mary Collinson (the first twin Playmates on Playboy, for cover and centerfold of the October 1970 issue), Marilyn Cole (the first Playmate to pose for a full frontal nude centerfold 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), Nancy Cameron (the 20th Anniversary Playmate and the only Playmate to have a back and front double-sided centerfold[11]), 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). He also photographed Playmate and Playboy bunny Barbi Benton (actress and singer who was Hugh Hefner's girlfriend) and Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actor Alan Alda.
Hooker mentored other Playboy photographers including Stephen Wayda.[12] He shot the cover for the first paperback edition of Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words (1974), with model Mercy Rooney.[13] He is reported to have the record number of rejections for a Playboy photographer when Hugh Hefner, the publisher, rejected 500 of Hooker's photographs for a centerfold.[14] [15]
Hooker retired from Playboy to Sundance, Utah to work as an architect.[12] He was a regular at the Sundance Film Festival.[16]
Hooker died in Michigan on January 3, 2015, at the age of 86.[17]
September 1969
May 1970
November 1970
December 1970
September 1971
November 1971
March 1972
May 1972
June 1973 (Playmate of Year, with Richard Fegley, Larry Dale Gordon and Alexas Urba)
November 1973
January 1974
May 1974
August 1974
June 1975 (Playmate of Year)
August 1975
October 1975
February 1976
May 1978
January 1979
June 1979
July 1969
September 1969
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April 1972
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September 1969
May 1970
November 1970
December 1970
September 1971
March 1972
November 1972
November 1973 (with Bill Frantz)
January 1974
May 1974
August 1974
August 1975 (with Suze Randall)
October 1975
February 1976 (with Mario Casilli)
May 1978 (with Phillip Dixon)
January 1979
June 1979
A book series on imaginary heiress Christina van Bell was written by "Blakely St. James", a pseudonym for multiple authors including Robin Leonard, Charles Platt, Ted Gottfried, William E Butterworth, and Hart Williams. Hooker provided the photographs used on the front and back covers. The model for all the books is Jill De Vries.