LOS ANGELES — One of Kelly Holland’s latest projects for Penthouse magazine is a new photo and interview feature series called Penthouse Pop Shots.
Holland, the longtime Penthouse president who took over ownership of the magazine and lifestyle brand in February, is making strides to reach more females. Already, under Holland’s tenure, Penthouse magazine has disrupted its past demographic numbers and now has a reader base that is 30-40 percent female.
The new Pop Shots series features photos taken by famous guest contributors who capture women of all shapes, ages, sizes and ethnicities in erotic poses.
The caveat here is that the contributors must capture shots that represent their unique vision of “hot.”
“[A]fter 50 years of tireless devotion to this noble cause, we have decided to pass the torch to people who stand at the center of the pop-culture landscape,” Penthouse magazine editors wrote. “Pop Shots features the world’s most beautiful women as filtered through the lens of some of the most prolific artists, celebrities and cultural icons.”
Dave Navarro was the first guest contributing photographer, and a long list of others followed, including Chris Nunez, Jesse Hughes, Howard Stern, Ralphie May, Ty Dolla $ign, Danny Passarella, Ruslan Karablin, Ilan Hall, Bill Plympton, Michael K. Williams, Luenell and Nicco Hurtado.
Along with the photos are interviews from the contributors.
Navarro, guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a member of Jane’s Addiction, said he took a certain direction in the photo shoot.
“The decisions I made were, in my mind, more in terms of ‘sexy’ than ‘hot,’ because those are different things,” Navarro said. “To me, sexiness is mystique and mystery, a yearning to want to know someone, whereas straight-up ‘pornographic’ imagery falls more into the ‘hot’ category, and is just more lustful. I think what I was trying to accomplish here was to show these women in a way that appeared strong and interesting and mysterious, because ultimately that’s what I find sexy in women and people.”
And Navarro’s plan for the shoot was indeed orchestrated to his likings, including his selection of the models.
“Skin Diamond is a very well-known adult film star, and I feel that we’ve seen her in adult scenarios and setups plenty, but Mosh isn’t,” he said. “From what I’ve seen of her work, it’s more fetish-oriented and burlesque. I was told I could pick anybody I wanted to, and those were the two I selected.
