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I have begun selling Art Amise's original 3D slide collection of Bettie
Page and have many high quality examples of his work left. Art Amsie was
one of the most well known photographers of Bettie Page and his work is
featured extensively in "Bettie Page: Life of a Pinup Legend".
I also have a set of 15 Art Amsie photos of Bettie Page from his
original stock. 14 are 8x10s and signed which he rarely did. They are
signed on the reverse and many include his comments shooting Bettie
Page. The last is a gorgeous 11x14" photo which is numbered and
signed in gold
by both Bettie Page and Art Amsie.
Contact
BettieMaePage for details.
The Art Amsie Bettie Page scans have recently been completed after about
eight years worth of wrestling in Photoshop. The scans are quite a bit
larger than the previous set. For the first time ever, the complete Art
Amsie collection of 84 images is available for viewing. Only four of the
scans have been left in their original state so you can get an idea of
the work involved. The complete collection is spectacular!
Sometime during the early to mid 1950s, Art Amsie (born Jun. 11 1927)
and a group of other avid pin-up photographers got together and pooled
their money to hire THE BEST New York model at the time; Bettie Page who
was often very late for her photographic assignments. Art then snapped
away without any thought of what Bettie Page was to become, a pinup,
fetish and all around goddess icon of the modern world. Art Amsie tried
focusing on the other girls but found himself always returning to Bettie
Page. He really loved her. All of Art Amsie's work was in 3D as was
Paul Knaut's.
Art Amsie's first camera club session with Bettie Page probably occurred
on Aug. 7 1955 which was also attended by
Franklin Acker.
Art Amsie photographed Bettie Page multiple times. After Bettie Page
left the modeling scene, he stashed his photographic material away in a
little box and forgot about her for a long while (or tried forcing the
memory of Bettie Page from his mind). Years later he heard whispers
about Bettie Page when everyone started to wonder whatever happened to
her and began searching for her. One place Art stated that he shot
Bettie Page was at B.C. Bay. I have not found B.C. Bay. Many of Art's
photos were taken at the
Headly Farm,
a popular camera club haunt. One
particular Headly Farm extravaganza was attended by Art Amsie,
Don Baida,
Arnold Kovacs
and Weegee amongst others on Sept. 09 1956. The roster of photographers
must have been huge as I have seen see many photos from this session
that are not attributed to Amsie, Baida, Kovacs or Weegee.
Art Amsie had a true love of pin-up photography and Bettie Page. He had
the foresight to photograph Bettie Page in 3D so he could view her years
later as she was at the pinnacle of her beauty. Bettie Page and Art
Amsie kept in contact after she was "rediscovered" in the 1990s. They
exchanged Christmas Cards and often enjoyed many long telephone
conversations together. Art still wanted to marry her years later after
she had quit modeling but Bettie Page was happy with the way things
were. As with many others, Art Amsie never forgot Bettie Page and
carried a torch for her for years. One common theme in conversations I
had with Bettie Page photographers was that they still loved her as they
did when they photographed her. She was magic!
Art Amsie passed away on Feb. 24 2006 of heart failure.
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