Vintage photos by Alice and Peter Gowland of the Santa Monica beach scene during the war years are on display at g169 gallery, 169 West Channel Rd., Santa Monica Canyon. The artists’ opening reception is Saturday, December 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. Longtime Rustic Canyon residents, the Gowlands have been photographing beautiful women for more than 60 years. They have written 25 books related to portrait and glamour and have published 13 posing guides. The Gowlands have sold images for at least 1,000 magazine covers and they have photographed 10 Playboy centerfolds and several Playboy covers. Peter’s interest in photography developed as an outgrowth of being raised in Los Angeles by actor parents. The entertainment industry, the beautiful women it attracts, and the city’s Pacific Ocean backdrop combined to inspire his technique. Despite all of that, Peter insists that the prevalence of breathtaking models influenced his photography the most. At first, Alice frowned on Peter’s hobby of photographing women. ‘I did resent it,’ she recalled in a Palisadian-Post interview in 2000. ‘But then I sent some photographs to a couple of magazines and received $200 for each shot. That was a staggering amount of money in those days.’ During World War II, Peter worked as an engineering cinematographer for North American Aviation. He and Alice spent evenings and weekends taking portraits and shooting speculative advertising photographs. Pin-ups became popular with the armed forces, so Alice sold some of their beach pin-ups as magazine covers while Peter was in the service. The gallery exhibition includes about 80 photographs capturing the culture of California girls, Hollywood’s beach and the war years. Contact: 310-459-4481.
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