Bunny Yeager / Photographer

[Bunny Yeager’s New York Times obituary, from bunnyyeager.net]

Bye Bye Bunny

RIP Bunny Yeager, Famous Pin Up Photographer

Bunny Yeager (March 13, 1929 – May 25, 2014) passed away, at age 85. Famous for her photographs of Bettie Page and other models, she made a huge contribution to the classic Pin Up Girl photo genre.

From the L.A. Times:

“Bunny Yeager had success as a model in Miami in the 1950s, but she wanted to be a photographer. She saw her chance when she met the little-known Bettie Page, who had modeled for under-the-counter photo sets that specialized in sadomasochism.
Yeager took a somewhat more wholesome, holiday-themed photo of Page — nude except for a Santa hat — and in 1955 sent it off to fledgling magazine Playboy. “I figured because they were new they might pay attention to an amateur, and that’s what happened,” she told the London Telegraph in 2012.

When her work was rediscovered after so many years of little work as a photographer, Yeager was thrilled. “It’s exciting to find out that I’m appreciated by so many people,” she told the Miami Herald in 2011. “The phone hasn’t stopped ringing. People want to see me.
“It’s like my life is starting all over again.”“

From Auction Central News:

“Her career returned to the spotlight in 2010 when the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh held an exhibition of her work. There was also an exhibition in Miami in 2013.

“And I still get that little tingle when I see the photos on the wall,” she said of the latter-day attention.

In her studio, Yeager kept a stash of photos no one had seen in cabinets. They will be included in a new book Yeager was finishing, scheduled for publication in September, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Yeager’s first photo shoots with Page, Christin said.

“I’m still feeling like a little child and excited over everything new that comes along in my life,” Yeager said in 2013. “I don’t know where it will lead to yet, but it sounds good to me.””