LOS ANGELES—Pioneering adult photographer Paul Johnson has announced he is seeking a new home for an extensive personal archive of adult industry photography and memorabilia from his career, spanning the Golden Era of adult film, from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Johnson’s first works were freelance shots sold to “nudie mags” of the era, he recalled, eventually landing a job at Jaybird magazine. Johnson also photographed what some believed to be the first explicit photos published for the mass market in the Academy Press publication, Sex in Marriage (1970).
In the mid-’70, Johnson founded adult magazine Opera Night, focused on glossy, high-end photography, and he claims to have originated the “point-of-view” style of photography with series “Let’s Pretend,” when he assumed the viewpoint of a performer in elaborately-staged photo sessions with some the era’s well-known adult models.
The list of classic performers in Johnson’s archives includes Seka, Juliet “Aunt Peg” Anderson, Serena, Sue Nero, Annette Haven, Tawny Pearl, Sharon Kane, Lisa Loring, Jessie St. James, Brooke West, Mai Lin, Lili Marlene, Lysa Thatcher, Desiree West, Laurien Dominque, Linda Wong, Cris Cassidy, Connie Peterson, Dorothy LeMay, Jamie Gillis, Paul Thomas, Herschel Savage, Jon Martin, Billy Dee, Mike Horner, Don Fernando, Richard Pacheco, Ken Scudder, Joey Silvera, John Seeman, Mike Ranger, and more.
Due to the AIDS/HIV epidemic of the mid-1980’s, Johnson said he retired from photography.
His work resulted in thousands of photographs, which are offered along with nearly 600 individual magazines, a collection of books featuring many of his photographs, more than 40,000 digital image files (high resolution scans of magazines, outtakes, etc.), 605 rolls of black and white negatives (with over 7,000 images), and approximately 24,800 transparencies. Johnson added that “bulk quantities” of DVD releases also are available (subject to licensing rights), as well as camera equipment.
For more information about the collection, visit www.ultraflesharchives.com.
