Bettie Page Bunny Yeager

Bunny Yeager was an American photographer and former pin-up model. Born Linnea Eleanor Yeager in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1929, Yeager became one of the most photographed models in Miami.

After retiring from modeling, Yeager began her career behind the camera. She met Bettie Page in 1954 and took most of the photographs of her that year. Along with photographer Irving Klaw, Yeager played a role in helping to make Page famous, particularly with her photos in Playboy magazine. Yeager is also credited with discovering the model Lisa Winters.

Following Page's retirement, Yeager remained a successful photographer. She took the well-known still images of Ursula Andress on the beach in the 1962 James Bond film Dr. No and discovered many other notable models. In 1968 she played the role of a Swedish masseuse opposite Frank Sinatra in Lady In Cement. Yeager was played by Sarah Paulson in the 2005 film The Notorious Bettie Page. She was also featured on a CNN story about the 60th anniversary of the bikini.

In the 1950s Yeager appeared on America's number one game show, What's My Line?, and she stumped the panel. In 2005, Cult Epics released the DVD 100 Girls by Bunny Yeager, a documentary with behind-the-scenes footage of Yeager's photo sessions with Page and other pin-up models.

In early 2010, the Warhol Museum held the first exhibition of Bunny's work. Most of the photographs in the exhibit came from Bunny's book How I Photograph Myself published by A.S. Barnes & Co. in 1964. In 2011, Gallery Schuster (Berlin/Miami) became the official representative of Yeager's photographic artwork.

In November 2011, the Dezer Schauhalle in Miami FL hosted a retrospective exhibition of Yeager's work. Included were some never-before-seen photos of various models including the late Bettie Page. In 2012 the German Fashion Company bruno banani launched their new fashion Line " Bunny Yeager" and opened, together with Gallery Schuster, a permanent Bunny Yeager Lounge in Berlin.

Find original Bunny Yeager photography on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by The Art Design Project)

Find a broad range of photography on 1stDibs today.

The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later. 

Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide. 

What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?

Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.

Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was given a Kodak camera as a child. Later, she shot on Polaroid film before buying her first 35mm camera in her teens. Barron's stunning portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and other artists chronicle a crucial chapter of New York’s cultural history.

Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful fine photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.