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/
Does Sex Still Sell Fashion?
A very interesting story from Vogue UK…
“As BABY SUMO, a masterpiece reworking of Helmut Newton’s seminal tome, hits shelves on what would have been the photographer’s 100th birthday, Vogue asks if sex really does still sell women’s fashion?”
“It’s an interesting moment to rerelease SUMO (1999), the 464-page Helmut Newton monograph that weighed 35kg and came with a specially designed Philippe Starck stand. To meet the current moment, it has been redesigned: now called BABY SUMO, it’s half the size and relatively speaking, it’s reasonably priced at £1,000. (The signed first-edition of SUMO became the most expensive book of the 20th century when it sold at auction in Berlin for 620,000DM in 2000, approximately £506k today.)”
Read the full story here… https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/helmut-newton-fashion-photography
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