The elegant Barbara Peckinpaugh, taken by US photographer Edmund Leja in 1980 from a set of original contact sheets. Barbara only worked as a model for a short period of time from 1980 until 1986 under various names and seems to have mostly done glamour or softcore work apart from two hardcore movies. Sadly no longer with us, as It’s reported that after her short career in modelling, she committed suicide. In nearly all her photo’s she’s blonde, but this shot was at the beginning of her short career, so obviously her natural colour.

Edmund Leja (1919-2002) was based in West Hollywood at the heart of the early Southern California nude photography industry. He was also friends with Andre de Dienes and both shared several model contacts including Diane Webber, Collette Berne (Playboy cover model, July 1960), and Sue Snow and Tammy Saunders. Leja discovered and photographed three Playmates for Playboy magazine Teddi Smith, Miss July 1960, Donna Michelle, Miss December 1963 (and 1964’s Playmate of the Year), and Lori Winston, Miss June 1964.

Edmund Leja photographed over 200 models between the 1940s and the early 1980s, and until I came across these shots of Barbara, I assumed he only shot glamour shots similar to those published in Playboy. Apparently not as there are several shots of Barbara showing off a lot more (as members can see), but at least the collars and cuffs match showing she was a natural brunette :)