From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Say "Cheesecake"

Move over, SuicideGirls: Photographer Janette Valentine is putting the fun and femininity back in pinup art.

by Terra Sullivan

October 4 2006

On a drizzly Saturday afternoon in September, a small group of women has gathered inside House of Vintage, a 1920s cottage in Delray Beach that operates as a boutique, beauty salon and snack shop. In the house's lavender salon, called The Color Parlor, the women are laughing, chatting about relationships and endlessly complimenting one another on their appearances. If not for the boxes overflowing with stockings and bras, and the patent-leather, high-heeled stripper shoes arranged in an array of colors like lollipops at a candy store, a visitor might mistake this scene for any old day at the beauty shop.

"Today's kind of impromptu," admits Janette Valentine, a bubbly woman who introduces herself as "Miss Valentine." With crimson lips and matching highlighted hair that cascades down her back all the way to the top of her low-slung jeans, Valentine looks and sounds like a human firecracker. She's bursting with explosive energy, a brilliant smile and an element of risk that is evident in the tattoo on her left arm of a skull and a gun that shoots lipstick bullets.

Valentine is holding up a black lace nightgown as Michelle Parparian, House of Vintage's co-owner, pairs the piece with girly accessories from the store's inventory. Both women step back, cock their heads and look at the outfit as if they're scrutinizing a painting. They head to the store's front room, where Valentine combs through boxes of era-appropriate clip-on earrings, shiny brooches and hairbands decorated with bright-red flowers.

"Sometimes, it's like, 'Hey! I just got some pink flamingos in the mail, and I'm going to grab a kiddie pool. Want to do a photo shoot?' " Valentine says, attempting to explain the activity taking shape around her.

The creator of Valentine Fotografiks -- motto: "Terribly girly photography" -- Valentine is attempting to keep the art of the pinup alive in South Florida. Her colorful photographs call to mind everything from 1950s stag magazines to iconic images of Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page, but with a distinctly modern bent; most of her models are tattooed, and all radiate a tangible air of sex and danger. Valentine's work can be found on her Web site, Valentinefotografiks.com, and in the pages of such publications as Varla, a Los Angeles-based magazine devoted to rock 'n' roll and pinup girls. She also shoots photographs for companies such as Hell's Belles Finishing School for Girls, which specializes in rockabilly purses, and is a partner in the online vintage-clothing shop Arsenic and Old Lace.

Today, though, Valentine has come to House of Vintage to work on a project called Atomic Bettie Productions, in which women pay to be made up and photographed as hot-pants-wearing, wrench-wielding mechanics, sweets-loving vixens in aprons and pearls, and the like. Think of it as a Glamour Shots for rock 'n' rollers. Two of her favorite subjects, Ana Rivera and Heather Hink, have signed up for today's shoot, which was supposed to take place outdoors. As makeup artist Virginia Mendez applies thick, Oscar-worthy black eyeliner to Rivera's face, the women collectively wonder aloud if the artist should give her a Frida Kahlo-like unibrow for a Latin flair. In another styling chair, Hink is getting a cotton-candy tease from hairstylist Riviera DeCordova, whose talent for beehives and curls would make celebrity hairstylist Jonathan Antin weep with envy.

"I've always worked with photographers, and I've always loved photography," Valentine says while observing the pre-shoot preparations. "When I was a kid, I'd tear out magazine spreads and keep tons of magazines around me. And I was always into makeup."

Valentine earned a degree in fashion photography from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, worked as a freelance makeup artist and interned at the modeling agency Mega. Two and a half years ago, Valentine left all that behind to start her own business, vowing to bring back the lighthearted fun of '50s-era pinup photography, when cheesecake meant sass.

"It wasn't really my thing," she says of mainstream fashion. "People take themselves too fucking seriously. It's like, 'Dude, we're all human beings, flesh and blood. Just because someone's 10-foot-9 and outrageously beautiful doesn't mean we all have to stop and suddenly kiss her ass and cater to her every need.' The whole photographer-model situation can be so superficial. … I'd rather work with people who aren't into that or maybe a girl who just says, 'You know, I've always wanted to be photographed because it would be fun or I just want to do it to feel better.' I prefer doing that over some girl who gets to hear every day, 'Oh my God, you're so beautiful. Are you a model?' "

Her photography appeals to a community of women whose do-it-yourself style fits into the scope of operations such as SuicideGirls and Retrokitten.com, where tattoos, punk rock and feminism rule. Valentine's photos don't feature nudity, but not because she's opposed to it. She simply enjoys dressing her models in costumes.

Although her work is sexy, it is also subversive. Her 20-something models never possess vacant stares, never appear scared and always look self-assured. "I really, really dig it. I love old pulp novels and that real-graphic feel from the vintage stag mags. It's so cheesy, but it's so awesome; you need to see the sense of humor. Some of it is so brilliant because it is so incredibly cheesy," Valentine explains. "I love graphic images, and for the most part, there is something subliminally funny about them."

As Valentine says this, Parparian enters the room holding another outfit. "Wow! Hooker," Valentine exclaims. "I like that.

"Yeah, I like things to be tasteful," she continues. "I can appreciate something that's overtly sexual, but I feel [my work is] sort of an extension of my personality. It's totally a reflection of me -- bright colors, a little bit sexy and kind of funny. But never too much. I don't like anything in excess. I think once you reach that point from moderate to kind of excessive, I get really grossed-out."

Valentine counts feminist collage artist Barbara Kruger and 1970s punk icon Patti Smith among her inspirations. She, of course, is also influenced by Bunny Yeager, a model turned photographer best known for her work with Bettie Page, one of the most popular pinup girls of all time. With the recent film The Notorious Bettie Page and a resurgence in burlesque troupes and Page-esque performers such as Dita Von Teese, Valentine understands that the image of the classic pinup could be as relevant today as it was half a century ago.

Yeager, who lives in Miami, agrees with this sentiment. "People appreciate my photos now just like they did in the 1950s," she writes in an e-mail. "There was a time [during] the 1970s that pinup photography became too explicit for me. I tried to compete with the times, but felt uncomfortable with it. So I put my camera down for a number of years and didn't shoot any glamour photography till the 1990s. That's when my style of shooting came back again, and I was appreciated once more."

While Yeager's photos initially appealed to men only, her work -- and that of photographers such as Valentine -- is embraced by both sexes today. "It's how women used to be," the 26-year-old Hink describes. "You didn't have to starve, you could eat, and I really love the fun aspect of it."

Valentine says the appeal of pinup photography is obvious. "Who doesn't want to get made up and get your hair done and get a picture and show your friends and think, 'Wow, I look really good'?" she explains. "I think, for the most part, we tend to be horrible with ourselves. And we say, 'I look fat, I look ugly, my ass is too big, my nose looks weird, I wish I had smaller feet.' It's always some bullshit."

Valentine says she receives the greatest feedback from women, who daily flood her MySpace page with comments. "It's kind of weird. I get a lot of e-mail from guys saying, 'I love what you're doing; the girls are beautiful,' " she explains. "But 90 percent of the feedback I get is from girls. With them, it's either, 'I love what you're doing' or 'I love that it's so much fun -- how can I do that?' "

Hink and Rivera both reached out to Valentine via MySpace. "I might see a girl and just see a quality, and it's not always physical," Valentine explains. "When a girl is sweet and nice and has something to say and has some cerebral action going on, that makes me connect [to her]."

Outside, the weather has started to clear up, and the women have congregated near the store's entrance. The barely clad models stand on the front steps, in plain view of a church across the street. Valentine asks Parparian how long it would take to walk to the beach, and everyone laughs at the prospect of the pinups parading down the streets of Delray Beach in their underwear.