In 1972 I discovered naked ladies
In the 1970s I was in London. I was living in an Islington flat that I shared with another photographer and his wife. I had just returned from the States to have another go at living in England and I was struggling for better ways to make my chosen profession pay the bills. I had done some work in the men’s fashion business and a shot a few book covers but it wasn’t enough. Pete was making progress in the music business and working for a London magazine, but he too was looking for more. Pete had recently sold some nice naked pictures to the alternative top shelf magazine, Curious. To go with these, I shot some sexy pictures of a model I had seen do a strip-tease at Time-Out Magazine’s first birthday party, and we took these into the offices of the top shelf magazine Men Only.
Our meeting was with Roger Watt, the art director of the magazine. He liked Pete’s pictures but they had already been published elsewhere so he couldn’t buy them. He then began looking at my images which were presented in a kind of strip tease sequence. The model was attractive and very feminine, coyly removing her top to display her beautiful breasts. He was still thinking it over as he turned the page and suddenly blurted out “Fucking hell Tony, Have a look at this!”. The model in question was Bobby Boyd, This was 1972 and she-males were almost unheard of outside of the far east.
Tony Power was the new, flamboyant editor of Men Only and Club International. The magazines, along with Penthouse and others, were experiencing a boom since the authorities had recently turned a blind eye to glossy girly mags showing pubic hair. It was the beginning of a new sex revolution in publishing. Tony explained that, interesting as my pictures were, he only published pictures of real girls, but he invited us to find some real girls, show him some test shots then, when approved, shoot a new set of sexy pictures for the magazine, pubic hair and all. The pay for all of this would be surprisingly good. JP Smut was born.
Years later the Erotic Print society published a collection of these images. Its out of print but second hand copies are sometimes available.
Synopsis:
This book captures the lusty, yet lyrical days of liberated lifestyles and innocent ideals in the early 1970s – a sexy, poignant reminder of a bygone age. JP Smut is the pseudonym for two people, American and British photographers Jay Myrdal and Peter Smith. As JP Smut they formed a partnership which revolutionised the girlie mags of the time. With their own blend of highly idiosyncratic, experimental photography and by introducing a more honest reflection of ’70s zeitgeist, they created a unique record of “alternative” youth culture.
JP Smut was the made-up photographer’s credit for our joint girlie shoots; J for Jay, P for Pete and Smut for – well, Smut. We settled into producing three or four shoots a month and finely began to make a living by taking pictures and enjoy doing it too. We were given pretty much free reign to design the shoots so we attempted to do more than just show sexy naked ladies, and we incorporated many themes from eggs to mirrors to wellington boots. We worked together for a year and a half until Pete had a break and took his family on the hippy trail to India. I carried on by myself using both the JP Smut handle and my own name. I was slowly but surely getting my act together.
Sex Freaks and Long Dong Silver
As I plied my trade as a soft core pornographer, I was continuing my experimentations in special effects. I was creating photographic effects for the music industry, and I was also working on a masking technique that Roger Cook, then editor of Club International, became interested in. Roger had an idea for a feature he wanted to call Sex Freaks and asked me if I could make it work. It was quite silly. The first layout he published even included a woman with three tits; her middle breast being made up of left and right sides double exposed together. It was very silly in fact, but it looked believable and Roger presented it as the truth in his magazine. The fans wanted more so I set to work making a variety of strange and unlikely images to fit Rogers oddly compelling, weird names. These wonders were created mostly by using my in-camera masking techniques then resorting to prosthetics for the long shots.
In the end I did quite a few including; The Boston Bat Wanger (a hermaphrodite with both pussy and willy), The Pawn Broker (three balls) and a three lagged couple entwined together (use your imagination), but all of these were eclipse by the infamous Long Dong Silver, aka King Dong, aka Mr 18 1/2 inch.
I was recently interviewed by David Flint of Reprobate Press, a hard hitting, no holds barred internet magazine. David covered my Long Dong Silver contribution to mankind better than I ever could. Click here or on the picture below to visit David’s very well written and researched article.
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Jay Myrdal
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