![]() Kieffer: Right now it’s on our website, we’re shopping it right now, we have some interest. WN: Which network is it going to broadcast? Kieffer: My first edition features “Precious Metal”, the Reno Air Racer, which is really an exciting airplane, and we thought that would make some great footage. And then we interview the pilots, and then we take the aircraft out for flight. Kieffer: You get to watch my photo shoots, and then you get to meet the pilots. Kieffer: So we do have a television show now, which is kind of a reality-based concept, where you get to watch the creation of the pin-up girl. Everything that I’ve used is a flight-ready airplane. One of the things that makes us unique is that we don’t re-use aircraft. Kieffer: I had to go into Hollywood, and found the animal trainer…. I found a P-40 with the proper markings, and hired a 600-pound Siberian tiger for the shot, which appears with our pin-up girl. This year, we had a special tribute to the AVG. We work together with my wife, who is a graphic and web designer, so we do this entirely ourselves. So this particular year coming up, it’s our fourth year as the Warbird Pin-Up Girls. When I became a photographer, I knew I wanted to do something to commemorate those guys. I’ve always wanted to be a fighter pilot myself, and the Flying Tigers appealed to me the most I think, and they still do as an adult. My father is an avid World World II historian, but of course the aviators appealed to me the most. Kieffer: Well I have been a warbird enthusiast since I was a child. WN: So tell me how you started this business? WarbirdsNews wanted to learn more about Kieffer, and our very own Moreno Aguiari sat down with him to talk about his company Elysium Multimedia which produces the Warbird Pinup Girls calendars. ![]() Photographer Christian Kieffer has proven himself very capable of recapturing the very best of 1940’s glamour, and has enjoyed considerable success in selling his beautifully produced calendars featuring these images. Some succeed better than others of course, as there is a very fine line between glamour and gratuitous exploitation, and it’s very easy to tip into the latter without a careful sense of style. However, a number of photographers have been producing images of women alongside vintage WWII aircraft attempting to recreate the best traditions of the past. There is a sense of nostalgia for the best of these images today mostly amongst young men of course. T his is certainly not something typically allowed in today’s US military, but it was a reflection of the times in a male-only fighting force, and served as a morale booster to the young men so far away from home and frequently facing mortal danger on a daily basis. While the US Navy frowned upon the practice at the time, the US Army Air Forces accepted aircrew naming and painting a representation of these “pin-up” girls on the sides of their aeroplanes. During WWII, these images, whether photographs or illustrations, frequently found themselves pinned upon the barracks room walls, in the lids of foot lockers and maintenance workshops etc. As most of you will recall, 1940s America is famous for its flamboyant and often risqué portraits of glamorous w omen in magazines and on billboards.
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