Edmund Leja (1919-2002) was a prolific glamour photographer between the 1940s and early 1980s.
He photographed three Playmates: Winston, Teddi Smith, and Donna Michelle.
He was based in West Hollywood and Studio City, where the early Southern California nude photography industry started. While many of his photos were in and around his home, he preferred working outdoors. Andre de Dienes was a colleague. The two shared contracts with many early models, including several that would become Playboy Playmates.
They both photographed Playmate of the Month Diane Webber (Miss May 1955 and Miss February 1956), Collette Berne (July 1960), Sue Snow and Tammy Saunders. Leja discovered and photographed three additional Playmates for Playboy magazine. They were Teddi Smith (Miss July 1960), Donna Michelle (Miss December 1963) and Lori Winston (Miss June 1964, and Playmate of the Year 1964.) During his career, Leja photographed over 200 models and created over 100,000 images between the 1940s and the early 1980s.
Source:https://www.vintage-nude.com/edmund-leja-photographer/
