There is so much to be said about women that Jeff Dunas prefers to use pictures to articulate his thoughts. Dunas has been shooting for ten years now, on both sides of the Atlantic, and recently gone through 500,000 slides to pick out his favorites. They are collected in Captured Women, a book out now from Melrose/Grove. Dunas (text concluded on page 171) started his career working for magazines such as Time and TV Guide and soon graduated to more challenging advertising and fashion jobs. For three years, he was the Paris photography editor for Oui magazine. In addition, he has photographed album covers for Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, Bobby Caldwell and Isaac Hayes. Now, however, photographing women has become Dunas' real life work. "I maintain a large studio in Los Angeles, but I rarely use it, because I prefer to work on location--and finding good locations is an art in itself. Six months of each year, I spend working in Paris. I am constantly thinking pictures, forever jotting down ideas for photographs. You need to be a little possessed in this business." The secret of the perfect shot? "In order for a photograph of a woman to succeed, it must reveal the allure and mystery that is part of every woman--whether she's clothed or unclothed," he says. "A woman's unique sensuality lies in her power to project subtle, almost indiscernible nuances. I try to capture on film that special essence that is the fascination she holds for men and women alike: that fleeting, revealing moment, that private moment. Successful pictures tell the stories themselves. They transmit something emotional and linger in the memory." Of Dunas' work, novelist Harold Robbins says: "The photograph is an art of the 20th Century. Within the century, there has been a photographer for each decade. I feel Jeff Dunas will prove to be the photographer of the Eighties."
