Playboy Press went to Richard Fegley with an offer he couldn't refuse: It wanted to publish a collection of his photographs. He could chose the subject, the models. "I thought of doing 12 girls or 12 couples. What I didn't want was 100 girls in anonymous bedrooms. Then I thought, Why not 12 women in is many locations--places that were as evocative and as uniquely beautiful as the women? I made up a list. The waterways of Venice. The Sahara Desert. The Tuileries in Paris, a wonderful place just to be and walk. The beach at Las Hadas, Mexico, a perfect fairy-tale location. Japan. The Queen Mary. A cantina in Mexico where they play old-style tango music. Some of the locations were places I had visited on assignment and wanted to return to, and others were places I had always wanted to make pictures.
"After I had narrowed down the locations, I chose the women I wanted to work with. Selecting my favorites from so many was very difficult.
"I'm not sure the pictures need a story or captions. The photographs are dreams. Any copy would merely weaken the implications of the fantasies."
After two years, the project was completed. Playboy Press assembled Fegley's labor of love into a deluxe hardcover edition that will be the main selection of the Playboy Book Club in June. The images you see here are only a small part of his ode to faces and places. Do yourself a favor and pick up the complete work. Then call your friendly travel agent.
