In 1952, Jack Faragasso, a young art student, hired a model for a photo shoot.
The model was Bettie Page before her career took off to the heights of being labeled The Queen of Pin Ups.
Here, for the first time ever, are those photographs from that afternoon session.
Outside of a few of the images used as reference for paperback book covers, these pictures have never been seen before.
Faragasso would go on to serve as teacher at the prestigious Art Students League of New York and also paint 100's of paperback covers, mostly in the science fiction and gothic romance genres.
About the Author: Jack Faragasso is a native born New Yorker who has been teaching drawing, painting, and composition at the Art Students League of New York since 1968.
It was only natural that Mr.
Faragasso, after being discharged from the US Army, to enroll in an art school.
At the Art Students League of New York, he studied with Frank Reilly, both in New York and Woodstock and learned how to paint landscape and the figure outdoors.
Reilly also taught photography as it was necessary for executing illustrations for portraits.
Reilly was and still is regarded by many as one of the finest teachers of drawing and painting in the country.
Faragasso, continues as the foremost authority on the Reilly system of drawing and painting.
After his studies with Reilly, Mr.
Faragasso embarked on a career of free lancing every type of art work, especially paperback book covers which were a good outlet for realistic representational painting then.
In 1967, Mr.
Faragasso assumed directorship and instructor of Reilly's School and then in 1968, he brought the students back to the league where he is still teaching and carrying on Reilly's work.
Regarding drawing, Mr.
Faragasso's class covers a thorough knowledge of light and shade, as well as structure, planes and forms, and how light reveals them.
These subjects are drawn with the principles of growth and action, using a varied line to make the drawing more dime.
Binary Publications The early photographs of bettie page: an american icon, paperback/jack faragasso
