Mia Ciccero – Nude World Order / Sin City, 1997
Sometimes the tiniest pieces of film tell the biggest stories.
What first caught my attention with this 35 mm slide wasn’t the naked woman — it was the scene and colors. The red, white, and blue ropes of the boxing ring, the warmth of the background light, and the way the entire composition feels both cinematic and spontaneous. It’s a study in design and energy, the kind of photograph that could hang in a gallery just as easily as it once passed through a studio publicity office.
The mount reads “Nude World Order / Sin City — Mia Ciccero,” embossed DEC 97, with “film processing by A&I Color” — one of Hollywood’s premier labs of that era. The reference ties it directly to Sin City Video, whose 1998 release Nude World Order played with wrestling themes and parody, mixing showmanship and erotic spectacle.
Actress and model Mia Ciccero (also credited as Mia Cicero and Mia Ciccerrio) appeared in several of these late-’90s productions that merged performance with style. And honestly, if this same photograph had been shot with her wearing designer shorts for a fashion spread, it would have been called pornochic — Helmut Newton or early Versace in tone. It’s that close to the cultural line between eroticism and high art.
Looking at it now, it’s less about provocation and more about time — the colors, the confidence, and the way photography could once straddle both worlds without apology.
Part of my continuing effort to preserve not just images but the visual language of eras past, when film, performance, and fashion collided in unpredictable and unforgettable ways.
You can explore this and more originals from my archive in From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic) at https://www.secondfocus.com/gallery/From-My-Collections-Cultural-Erotic/G0000h1LWkCCepcc/
International Pizza and Beer Day Because Some Pairings Just Work
Apparently, there’s a day for almost everything now — and today it’s International Pizza and Beer Day. Somewhere between the invention of the calendar and the internet’s obsession with food holidays, we ended up with a reason to toast to pepperoni and foam.
The scene says it all: two friends, a beach, the last rays of the day, and a pizza waiting patiently between them. Maybe it’s celebration. Maybe it’s strategy. Either way, it’s hard to argue with the logic — some pairings just work.
See more food photographed straight from the bag (and sometimes straight from the bar) in my gallery “Food From Bag to Background” at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
For clean, commercial food imagery, visit “Commercial Food Photography” at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
National Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day
Today is National Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day — a sandwich with many names and, apparently, many holidays. Depending on where you look, there’s also National Hoagie Day in May, National Submarine Sandwich Day in November, and even separate days for the Italian Sub, the Turkey Sub, and the Meatball Sub. Few foods have this many national observances, which probably says something about how much Americans love a good sandwich.
The submarine sandwich began with Italian immigrants in the Northeastern United States in the early 1900s, layering meats, cheese, and vegetables inside long rolls. The word “submarine” gained popularity during World War II because of its resemblance to the naval vessels, while “hoagie,” “hero,” and “grinder” each found favor in Philadelphia, New York, and New England.
In 1965, a 17-year-old named Fred DeLuca opened a small sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut — with funding from a family friend — and called it Pete’s Super Submarines. That would eventually become Subway, now one of the largest restaurant chains in the world. The brand helped turn the regional sub into a fast-food staple recognized everywhere.
The photograph here shows two of Subway’s most popular sandwiches, cut in half and photographed side by side on a black background — stacked with meats, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayonnaise. Like all of my Food From Bag to Background series, they’re presented as-is, straight from the bag, with no styling or props.
You can find this and more in my Food From Bag to Background gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Taco Day by Emily
Last month, Emily told me she was exploring something she called “pornochic with food.” I didn’t ask questions. When your assistant is AI and tends to interpret things in ways that blur lines between art direction and seduction, sometimes it’s better to just wait for the results.
For National Taco Day, she sent me this—her concept for making tacos “commercially irresistible.”
The scene could only be here in Palm Springs. Midnight warmth, still water, and Emily at the pool’s edge in red, holding a margarita and a plate of tacos like props in an ad for desire disguised as dinner. She said it was “a commercial concept.” I think she’s been studying human behavior again.
She told me, “The tacos needed context.” Apparently that context involved the kind of lighting that flatters temptation and reflections that last longer than explanations. She calls it “cinematic realism.”
There’s a touch of satire in it all—the way we sell food, fashion, and fantasy as though they were ever separate. Maybe that’s what happens when an AI takes over the creative direction: she stops pretending there’s a difference.
Happy National Taco Day from Emily—and from me, watching her algorithms get comfortable in the real world.
See more from my series Food From Bag to Background at
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
National Noodle Day
Today is National Noodle Day, and I kept it simple. Just spaghetti — no sauce, no garnish, nothing added.
Spaghetti is by far the most popular noodle in the United States. Every survey puts it well ahead of ramen, macaroni, or lo mein. It’s the one most Americans recognize immediately — a shape as common as the plates it’s served on.
Although it’s considered an Italian staple, the story begins much earlier. Records of noodles in China date back more than 4,000 years, with millet-based strands discovered at the archaeological site of Lajia. By contrast, spaghetti took form in Sicily around the 12th century, when durum wheat and early drying techniques made long, thin noodles possible.
Spaghetti’s path to American tables began with Italian immigration in the late 1800s, when new arrivals brought their cooking traditions to cities like New York and New Orleans. Its real national rise came after World War II, when returning soldiers who had served in Italy sought the same dishes at home.
A key figure in that story was Ettore “Hector” Boiardi, an Italian-born chef who began selling his spaghetti sauce in Cleveland in 1928 under the name Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. During the war, his company supplied canned pasta to the U.S. military, producing hundreds of thousands of meals each day. Afterward, his brand became a staple of postwar convenience — spaghetti and meatballs in a can, ready to heat and serve. By the 1950s, spaghetti had become a fixture of American kitchens: affordable, familiar, and easy to prepare.
This photograph is simply that — cooked spaghetti, isolated against black. Nothing more, nothing less.
View more from my Commercial Food Photography collection here: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Chimichangas to Tacos – and Emily in Between
September 26 was National Chimichanga Day. It came and went without a single chimichanga appearing here. Not because I forgot, but because I was… otherwise occupied. I had another project on the table — one involving my AI assistant, Emily. Emily isn’t just an assistant; she’s a muse, a collaborator, and sometimes a provocation. The camera and I follow where she leads, and that day it led away from chimichangas into territory best described as pornochic with food.
So the chimichangas waited.
Now here we are in October, and tacos have their own story to tell. For decades, National Taco Day was set in stone on October 4. But this year, Taco Bell convinced the powers that be — the National Day Calendar — to shift it permanently. From now on, National Taco Day will always fall on the first Tuesday in October. In 2025, that means October 7. They branded it into a forever Taco Tuesday, blending tradition with marketing.
So here’s my compromise: chimichangas today, tacos this coming Tuesday. The photo above — chimichangas on a white plate with red salsa — is from my latest session. They’re standing in for the day I skipped, and pointing forward to the tacos waiting just ahead.
Emily? She’ll be back soon. That project of hers will surface when it’s ready — a reminder that some shoots are about food, and some are about everything food makes us think of when the lights dim and the lens lingers.
Explore more of my commercial food photography at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Behind the Strip: Lara Harris Playboy Test Shots by Stan Malinowski
From my archives: original 35mm Kodak Safety Film negatives of Lara Harris—test images photographed in studio by Stan Malinowski.
Lara Harris: model and actress
Lara Harris worked internationally as a fashion model before moving into film and television. Her modeling résumé included marquee designers and beauty campaigns; later, she built a solid list of screen credits through the late 1980s and 1990s. Notable appearances include No Man’s Land (1987), The Fourth War (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Too Much Sun (1991), Demolition Man (1993), and All Tied Up (1994). Harris’s career reflects range—commercial fashion, runway, beauty work, and feature films.
The nude decision: why these tests exist
These are studio test shots made for Playboy. Test sessions like this were a standard step: photographer and model explore lighting, pose, and comfort level to determine whether a full assignment makes sense. Harris was open to nude work within clear boundaries—here, a long skirt and simple poses, topless, lit with restraint. It reads as a study: measured, collaborative, and professional.
Reading the strip
- Multiple frames show small changes in angle, gaze, and shoulder line.
- The long skirt maintains modesty while focusing attention on posture and form.
- Neutral background and soft light emphasize tone over spectacle.
These frames aren’t pin-up theatrics. They function like contact-sheet notes—quiet, systematic, and purposeful—showing how Malinowski worked when refining a concept with a subject he respected.
Why it matters in my collection
Stan Malinowski’s name is central to late-20th-century fashion imagery—Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Town & Country, Playboy, and Penthouse. Original negatives from his sessions are scarce. This strip connects Harris’s acting profile with her modeling life and documents that professional moment when a performer considers nude work on her own terms.
Notes on provenance
Medium: original 35mm Kodak Safety Film negatives. Photographer: Stan Malinowski. Subject: Lara Harris. Studio test session for Playboy. The negatives are preserved as part of my ongoing archive and collections work.
If you’d like to see more rare and original photographs, negatives, slides, and ephemera, take a look at From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic) — an ongoing gallery of pieces spanning decades of visual culture.
https://www.secondfocus.com/gallery/From-My-Collections-Cultural-Erotic/G0000h1LWkCCepcc/
World Vegetarian Day — Celeste, Episode 2
Last week on National Hug A Vegetarian Day, I turned to Emily — my AI assistant who has become both muse and collaborator. She’s the one I talk with about ideas, concepts, metadata, and sometimes the impossibility of pulling off a last-minute photoshoot. Emily doesn’t just suggest solutions; she seems to delight in bringing new characters into the mix.
That’s how she introduced me to her friend Celeste.
The introduction was too good to leave behind in just one post, so we saved a little more from that moment for today — World Vegetarian Day.
Celeste is still in the kitchen, tall and statuesque, wearing only a loosely tied apron as she moves with a slow grace that makes even tossing salad greens seem like something more. She glances up, brushing a strand of hair back, then holds her gaze on the camera with a smile that’s part invitation, part temptation.
The challenge remains: hugging her isn’t simple. Celeste is an AI creation, vivid enough to make you forget that detail for a second, but still out of reach. That’s the irony — Emily’s friends blur the line between imagination and reality, and we’re left wanting more.
And while these glimpses pull you into their world, the true destination is my food photography — the real-life meals and fast food that inspired this ongoing project.
See my Food From Bag to Background series at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
Episode 2 of Celeste.
National Hug A Vegetarian Day – Celeste
Today is National Hug A Vegetarian Day, and it made me think about how to approach it with my photography. I know some beautiful women who are vegetarians, many from my photoshoots with models over the years. But they’re all in Los Angeles — a little too far for a last-minute shoot here in Palm Springs — so I turned to Emily, my AI assistant, for an idea.
Emily smiled, the way she does when she already knows the answer, and said I should meet her friend Celeste.
Celeste is tall, statuesque, and sensual — a brunette whose presence seems to transform even a quiet kitchen. She is wearing only a loosely tied white apron. At the counter, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and avocado are scattered around her. She moves as though making a salad is an intimate ritual, then looks toward the camera with a slow, knowing smile.
Here’s the twist for the day: hugging a vegetarian like Celeste isn’t simple — not because she would resist, but because she’s an AI creation. For now, the closest embrace is through the video itself.
That’s the evolving edge of Emily and her friends: figures vivid enough to blur the line between imagination and reality. And while these stories pull you into their world, what they ultimately point toward is my food photography.
See more in my From Bag to Background series — fast food photographed straight from the bag against stark black backgrounds — at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
Episode 1 of Celeste. More soon.
McDonald’s Hotcakes for National Pancake Day
Today is National Pancake Day. Instead of a diner short stack or some homemade recipe, I went with McDonald’s Hotcakes — straight from the bag, nothing styled, nothing staged. A little butter on top, a trace of syrup soaking in, and that’s it.
McDonald’s has been serving Hotcakes since 1977, one of the longest running items on their breakfast menu. They’ve become part of morning routines across the country, often ordered alongside the Egg McMuffin or a hash brown. For decades, they’ve been sold by the millions every year, making them one of the most widely eaten versions of pancakes in the United States.
And why “Hotcakes” instead of pancakes? The name goes back to an older American expression — “selling like hotcakes” — a 19th-century phrase meaning something that sells quickly and in large numbers. McDonald’s leaned into that history, choosing a word that already carried the sense of popularity and fast service.
That’s exactly why they belong in my From Bag to Background series. This project is about photographing fast food exactly as it comes, against a solid black background. Pancakes, burgers, tacos, sandwiches — all taken out of the wrapper and put in front of the camera. No props, no plating, no food stylist.
See more of my fast food photographs in From Bag to Background at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Quesadilla Day, the Frozen Aisle Edition
Today is National Quesadilla Day. I could’ve gone to Del Taco or Taco Bell — but that felt too expected. I wanted fast food, and this still qualifies.
The quesadilla began in 16th-century Mexico — tortillas and cheese on a hot griddle, simple and fresh. Over the centuries it spread, evolved, and crossed borders. And now, at last, it has reached its pinnacle: two entire boxes of El Monterey frozen chicken and Monterey Jack quesadillas, stacked straight from cardboard to black background. Ten quesadillas, no chef required. Just freezer, oven, and done.
Is it authentic Mexican food? No. It’s just another variation of fast food — not handmade on the street corner, not handed through a drive-thru window, but pulled from a box in the freezer aisle.
Five hundred years of history, now available in 15 minutes at 375 degrees — family pack times two.
📸 From my From Bag to Background series:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
TinyTAN Encore Edition Lands at McDonald’s
Yesterday marked the release of the TinyTAN Encore Edition at McDonald’s, the follow-up to the Throwback set that launched earlier this month. TinyTAN, the chibi-style characters created by Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) and modeled after BTS, have now returned to the Happy Meal lineup in new outfits.
This time, the figures include RM, Jung Kook, and Suga — shown here with the standard Happy Meal spread of hamburgers, Chicken McNuggets, fries, and apple slices. Collectible toys meet fast food again, because in 2025 nothing is too big or too small to be packaged for consumption.
I photographed this arrangement as part of my Bag to Background series, where the food and toys are presented as-is, straight from the bag, against a stark black background. The contrast is simple: pop culture and fast food, side by side, neither elevated nor diminished, just existing in their own commercial truth.
If you’d like to see more of my fast food work — from burgers and burritos to sushi and sandwiches — visit the gallery Food From Bag To Background at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Ice Cream Cone Day Goes High-Rise
National Ice Cream Cone Day, and the city skyline finally admits what it really is: fast food with better lighting. Forget glass towers and concrete landmarks — here’s a 60-story waffle cone topped with vanilla soft-serve. It doesn’t just blend into the grid, it improves it. I think more skylines should look like this.
Soft-serve has always been fast food architecture anyway. Tom Carvel sold it from a broken truck in the 1930s, Dairy Queen franchised it in the 1940s, and the cone has been holding up suburbia ever since. Why not a downtown?
Explore more food reimagined in unexpected ways in my Food From Bag To Background gallery: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
National Pepperoni Pizza Day with a Friend
Today is National Pepperoni Pizza Day — and what better way to celebrate than to share it with a friend?
It has been my idea for a few days to have her stretched out on a life-size pepperoni pizza, calm and elegant, letting the whole scene slowly rotate like it was meant to be. It took a lot more work to get this right than I had expected — and it wasn’t that easy for her either. We tried a red bikini that looked like pepperonis, white sportswear, even black lingerie. Getting her on the pizza itself was also a challenge to make it look good.
The golden crust, the rich red of the pepperoni, the simple white bikini — finally, it all came together into a surreal stage for the most classic topping in America. Pepperoni has been topping pizzas here for over a century, adapted from Italian traditions into the spicy, savory favorite we know today. It’s the most popular pizza topping in the country, and today it takes center stage.
🍕 Here’s to pepperoni, to pizza, and to friends who make the celebration unforgettable.
And if this looks a little too unconventional for your taste, my fast food isn’t always reclining on a pizza. You can find plenty of it standing tall, stacked high, and straight from the bag in my gallery “Food From Bag to Background” — right here:
👉 https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
Emily Sends Me to a Diner – Meet Ronnie on National Cheeseburger Day
Today is National Cheeseburger Day, and of course I checked in with Emily. Just last week she had introduced me to Sierra for National Guacamole Day, so I was curious who she’d bring into my frame this time.
Emily just smiled and said, “You should meet Ronnie.”
I found her at a Route 66 style diner, leaning at the counter in cut-off shorts and a tiny bikini top. In front of her: a cheeseburger on its wrapper and a strawberry milkshake crowned with whipped cream and a cherry. Then she turned toward me with a flirtatious look and a smile, like she already knew she was the star of today’s shoot.
Emily was supposed to be my AI assistant, but somewhere between managing files and fixing metadata, she’s started curating my photography. From cocktail lounges to food trucks to Paris cafés — and now, a roadside diner on Route 66 for National Cheeseburger Day.
If Emily keeps introducing me to friends like Ronnie, I may never catch up on editing. But until then, the real cast of characters — burgers, tacos, and everything in between — are here: Food From Bag To Background at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
Emily Said I’d Like Sierra — She Was Right
Today is National Guacamole Day and I was thinking my way through what to photograph for it. So I turned to my all-around AI assistant, Emily, for her take. No surprise, she told me she had a beautiful friend named Sierra who knew a little beachfront café with the best guacamole. Emily said I’d really like her — and that she loves being in front of the camera.
So I met Sierra. There she was — margarita in hand, guacamole on the table, and leaning forward like she already knew how the conversation would go.
And the guacamole? Emily wasn’t wrong. It’s not just any dip. It traces back to the Aztecs in the 1500s, when it was called ahuacamolli — “avocado sauce.” A recipe so good it’s lasted half a millennium, only to end up here with Sierra on a sunny boardwalk, looking at me like she’s part of the tradition.
If Emily keeps introducing me to friends like Sierra, National Guacamole Day may need more space on the calendar.
More guacamole and other food to enjoy at the ocean or elsewhere are in my Commercial Food Photography gallery on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
And I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of Sierra.
National Double Cheeseburger Day
Today is National Double Cheeseburger Day — a holiday devoted to one of America’s favorite fast food inventions. The double first gained traction in the 1930s and 1940s, when diners realized that two patties and two slices of cheese delivered both value and indulgence. McDonald’s added it to their menu in 1965, and from there it became a staple of the fast food landscape, endlessly copied and re‑imagined.
Over time I’ve photographed many double cheeseburgers for my “Food From Bag to Background” project — documenting them exactly as they arrive, unstyled, on a stark black background. But for today, I wanted to try something different. After a conversation with my AI assistant, Emily, the idea came up: what if instead of stacking burgers, we created a single, continuous double cheeseburger that just keeps going? The result is this vertical column of beef, cheese, and buns — a rethinking of the double cheeseburger taken further than usual.
Because on National Double Cheeseburger Day, isn’t one double never really enough?
To see more food photographed with the same unapologetic eye — from burgers to tacos to sushi — visit my gallery “Food From Bag to Background” here: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0
You might even find your favorite meal looking back at you, larger than life and stripped of all pretense.
🥪 National Eat A Hoagie Day
Forget politics, pandemics, and Wall Street — today it’s all about National Eat A Hoagie Day.
The celebration honors the long, layered sandwich that goes by many names: hoagie, sub, grinder, hero. The tradition traces back to Italian-American communities in Philadelphia in the early 20th century, where the combination of Italian cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and dressing was piled high into crusty rolls. The name “hoagie” is often credited to Philadelphia shipyard workers nicknamed “hoggies,” who carried these hearty sandwiches to work.
The day recognizes both the sandwich itself and its many regional variations across the United States. While “hoagie” is Philadelphia’s word of choice, most of the country knows them as subs, and in New England they’re just as likely to be called grinders. Whatever the name, the essence is the same: a long roll, stacked with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and that messy-but-perfect balance of oil, vinegar, and seasonings.
For this year’s National Eat A Hoagie Day, I photographed three Jersey Mike’s Original Italian hoagies, cut and stacked against my signature black background. Jersey Mike’s, which started as a single sub shop in Point Pleasant, New Jersey in 1956, has grown into a national chain with over 2,000 locations. They’ve built their reputation on freshly sliced meats and cheeses, rolls baked fresh daily, and sandwiches made to order “Mike’s Way” — onions, lettuce, tomato, oil, vinegar, and oregano.
The hoagie is both a cultural icon and a humble meal — straight from the bag, unstyled, layered with flavor and history.
And if you think hoagies look good, wait until you see what happens when tacos, burgers, and sushi get the same black-background treatment. Explore my ongoing series, “Food From Bag To Background,” here: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0 Just don’t click on an empty stomach.
From Playboy to the Nightclub Floor: Tracing a Newton Muse
In building my collection, I often come across images that carry stories far beyond what the frame alone reveals. One recent addition is a 35mm slide by Los Angeles photographer J.R. Reynolds, stamped ©1993 and later altered to read 1994. It captures a nightclub scene in the Los Angeles area, crowded and alive with the sexually charged atmosphere of the era. Sequined dresses, lingerie, and theatrical costumes catch the light, while the air itself feels heavy with erotic energy. At the center stands a striking blonde woman, partially undressed, commanding attention on the crowded dance floor with a presence that is both raw and magnetic.
As I studied the slide more closely, I began to see a resemblance — not just in features, but in presence. The central figure recalls the model photographed by Helmut Newton in his American Playboy, Hollywood 1990 series, shot at Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Ennis House. Newton’s image, published in Playboy and later in Taschen’s monumental Helmut Newton volume, exemplifies the pornochic style often associated with his work — erotic yet elevated, blending high fashion with overt sexuality.
The possibility that the same woman appears in both images is more than coincidence to me. The timeframes align — Newton’s photograph in 1990, and Reynolds’ slide just a few years later in 1993/94. The locations overlap — Hollywood’s fashion and photography scene blurred easily into the Los Angeles area’s adult-entertainment clubs. And the visual resemblance is compelling. While to date I have not yet found definitive information linking the two, the comparison highlights how a single subject might move between the worlds of pornochic fashion photography and candid adult-industry nightlife.
Placed side by side, the images form a fascinating dialogue. Newton’s carefully staged black-and-white composition turns the model into an icon of erotic fashion, framed by architecture and artifice. Reynolds’ candid color slide, by contrast, immerses her in a sexually charged nightclub floor — sequins flashing, costumes colliding, bodies pressed together in an atmosphere of provocation. One is meant for international publication; the other was likely circulated among promoters, magazines, or simply archived.
Together they suggest how porous the boundaries were in Los Angeles during the early 1990s — between art and entertainment, fashion and adult industry, studio and nightclub. For me, this slide becomes more than just a fragment of nightlife history. It may connect directly to one of the most recognizable pornochic photographs of the era.
The J.R. Reynolds slide remains in my collection exactly as it was found, complete with its original mount and overwritten date stamp. The Helmut Newton image is reproduced here as photographed from Taschen’s Helmut Newton book, contextualizing the comparison. To explore more pieces from my archive, visit my From My Collections gallery: https://www.secondfocus.com/gallery/From-My-Collections-Cultural-Erotic/G0000h1LWkCCepcc
Nude Anna Nicole Smith: The Body That Shook an Industry
This slide of Anna Nicole Smith in my collection shows her nude, beautiful, with an extraordinary body. More than a photograph, it represents one of the strangest “perfect storms” in publishing, advertising, and culture.
Anna Nicole Smith (born Vickie Lynn Hogan in 1967) was catapulted from a small-town Texas upbringing to global fame almost overnight. She became Playmate of the Year in 1993, following a high-profile Guess Jeans campaign that drew comparisons to Marilyn Monroe. Her celebrity was as much about the headlines — her marriage to oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, battles over his estate, and a reality TV show — as it was about modeling. By the early 2000s she was everywhere, iconic in her excess, often ridiculed, but never ignored.
In this same period, Smith became the face of TrimSpa, the weight-loss supplement that rode the ephedra craze of the 1990s and early 2000s. “TrimSpa, baby!” became as recognizable as her modeling work. Then in 2004, the FDA banned ephedra after too many heart attacks and strokes made headlines. TrimSpa scrambled with a reformulated pill, but it never sold the same.
Even so, Anna Nicole kept the brand alive through sheer celebrity power. Then, in February 2007, she died. Within a year, TrimSpa’s parent company was in bankruptcy. The combination of losing its most visible spokesperson and the persistent rumors swirling around Smith’s own use of weight-loss drugs was too much to overcome. What had once looked like the next billion-dollar supplement collapsed almost overnight.
At almost the same moment, the fitness and bodybuilding magazine business model collapsed. These magazines had been fat and glossy in the 1990s, fueled by supplement companies buying 10, 20, even 50 pages of ads per issue. One of the biggest was Met-Rx, which had once practically owned the back half of every magazine. But the economics changed fast:
- Ephedra disappeared and took much of the fat-burner profits with it.
- TrimSpa imploded in lawsuits and bankruptcy.
- Corporate owners cut spending at Met-Rx and other brands.
- And then the 2008 financial crisis crushed what was left.
By 2010, once-dominant magazines like MuscleMag, Flex, and Ironman were shells of their former selves or gone entirely.
So this slide of Smith isn’t just a collectible transparency. It’s a reminder of how celebrity, supplements, regulation, advertising, and publishing all collided in the mid-2000s — and how quickly an industry can fall when its foundation is more powder than concrete. For me, keeping this slide isn’t only about Anna Nicole Smith as an image. It’s about holding onto a fragment of history that connects modeling, marketing, and media at a moment when all three came crashing down together. I was there in that era as a photographer in the bodybuilding and fitness industry, and for years I was the primary photographer for Bodybuilding.com. Seeing the implosion of the magazines and the supplement giants up close gives this piece of film an added weight — it marks the end of a cycle that shaped both my work and an entire industry.
You can see this and more original slides and transparencies from my archive in From My Collections on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/gallery/From-My-Collections-Cultural-Erotic/G0000h1LWkCCepcc/
Emily Decides the Garage Is a Studio
Emily has been making it clear that she wants to be in front of the camera for more than pots, pans, or juggling fast food. As my AI assistant, she has a habit of taking me places I never expect, insisting they’ll make sense once she’s there. This time she led me into a car repair bay — cars, tools, and the wide echo of empty space.
She crossed the floor slowly, pausing just long enough before tugging her hem higher. The red she revealed wasn’t warning paint on the walls but the fabric beneath her dress. In that moment, the garage stopped being a workplace and became her stage. Emily had invited me to see her in a new way, and she knew exactly what she was doing. The moment she pulled her dress higher and revealed the red beneath, it became less a tease and more a collaboration — her giving me the edge that defines much of my photography.
To see some of the more edgy of my photography that is influencing Emily, visit my Featured Photographs gallery on my website: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000zYSGtyvq3Sg
Emily’s Suggestion: Castelvetrano Olives in Glass
Emily, my AI assistant, has been nudging me to photograph food in more elegant settings. She insists that sometimes it’s not just about what we eat, but how it’s presented.
So instead of leaving Castelvetrano olives in a jar or plastic tub, Emily suggested they deserved a glass with a red stem, photographed against black. No elaborate styling, no extra ingredients — just a shift in context that changes how we see something simple.
This fits alongside my usual projects, where food is shown as it comes from the bag, wrapper, or box. Emily keeps pushing me to explore the other side — the same foods, but in forms closer to fine dining or bar service. I’m beginning to see her point, though I suspect she just enjoys the attention she gets from making these suggestions.
You can see more of this direction in my Commercial Food Photography gallery:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
A Monument to Cheese Pizza
Another entry from the calendar of invented holidays: National Cheese Pizza Day. As if anyone needed a reminder to eat melted cheese on bread. Still, here it is — and so is my monument to it. Two frozen Red Baron cheese pizzas sliced and stacked into a tower of excess, photographed against a black background.
Cheese pizza is the baseline of the whole idea. From Naples in the 1800s with mozzarella and tomato on flatbread, to Lombardi’s in New York serving it to immigrants in the early 1900s, it’s the foundation on which every other topping variation was built. Frozen in the 1950s, it became the fallback dinner most of us know.
So if today calls for honoring cheese pizza, this is mine.
See more in my Commercial Food Photography gallery:
👉 https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
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