I tend to think of vintage photographs of women as falling in one of several genres. There’s the pinup. There’s the nude. And somewhere in between is the burlesque style photograph which can have a little of both genres. There is usually a performative aspect to these three genres. What keeps a burlesque style photograph from being a plain nude photograph is the element of costuming. An element of nudity keeps the photograph from being purely a pinup. Here are three examples of burlesque styling.

The first photograph is a 4×5 inch print and is pure burlesque styling. The second photograph, also a 4×5 inch print, is a pinup with burlesque styling. The first two photographs where probably shot around 1950. The third photograph is earlier, 1940s, and is a 3.5×5.5 inch print. The setting of this photograph is similar to some Guyette photographs, bare wall background, a piece of cloth covering the floor. This isn’t a Guyette photograph but shows that at least some of his photographs fall within an existing sensibility.