Serge Jacques was the master of French erotic photography throughout the ’50s and ’60s.
Despite very rigid morality legislation, a multitude of so-called “charming” publications were born: Paris Hollywood, Venus, Paris Tabou, Enquêtes, Frou-frou, Régal, and Sensations adorned the Parisian kiosks, although they were prohibited from display and consultation.
This new market is driven by the aspiration to freedom, which manifests itself from the Liberation and will last for many years afterwards. Demand is high, and photographers are few: Serge de Sazo, Marcel Véronese, and later André Bellorgey and Rolland Carré will be the other charming photographers who will share most of the French production during the next twenty years.
His first nude studies will be the occasion of a romantic escapade on the Normandy coast. This report, quickly published by the magazine V Magazine, will encourage him to continue this activity. Rather academic, his early work remains classical, but he quickly evolves towards a more natural and narrative style. In the studio, he had decorations painted by the illustrator Maurice Pinault, giving his series a character of Parisian lightness and futility that would become his trademark.
Serge Jacques then began a regular collaboration with the magazine Paris-Hollywood, renamed Folies de Paris and Hollywood in 1953; it would remain the benchmark French charming publication until the mid-1960s.
Intended for a more demanding public than that of magazines, we see the appearance of collections of albums of academic nudes, in quarto format and of finer print quality, published by Veronese . Until 1968, French legislation remained very restrictive regarding the dissemination of images considered licentious. Publications are closely monitored by censorship, which absolutely prohibits the representation of sex and body hair.
Publications in which nudes appear are prohibited for sale to minors, consultation and display, even when they take shelter behind naturism, which some publishers will make a speciality of. To circumvent these constraints, photographers and editors systematically retouch the shots, sometimes by smoothing the private parts with an airbrush and sometimes by adding underwear with a retouching brush.
1960s-1970s
His knowledge of German and English allows him to present his work to foreign journals in Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic. This network will open its production to foreign magazines from the end of the fifties. This notoriety acquired in export will allow him to realize his shots abroad, particularly in the American West.
Printing techniques evolved towards offset and colour, and he gradually abandoned black and white and his development and printing activity. The photographic material is also changing; the 24×36 is lighter and more manageable, but imposing new framing constraints gradually succeeds in the historic format 6×6. Changes in legislation accompany this technological shift and will also mark the end of the careers of many of its competitors from the Folies Paris-Hollywood era. The newspaper itself will not survive it.
1970s-1990s
A generation of new publishers and the emergence of young photographers are updating the vision of charming photography with a new approach. He will be, for some, an assiduous contributor. Still, it is for the British press group Paul Raymond that he concentrates most of his work, producing massively the photographic content of its magazines.
To not tire his public or his publishers, he surrounds himself with many assistants who feed his production capacity.
From Rita Renoir to Brigitte Lahaie, the muses of several generations will pass in front of her lens. This longevity will end at the dawn of the nineties. With the rise of video and then the appearance of the Internet, the boundaries between eroticism and pornography are blurred. They will sound the death knell for old-fashioned glamour photography.
https://www.sergejacques.com/index.php
PS: I recently acquired the magazine Adams Special Report: The Erotic Photographers. There, you can read an interview with Serge on the page. 58
