Born Linnea Yeager March 13Th, 1929 in Wilkinsburg, PA

Bunny Yeager

Born Linnea Yeager March 13th, 1929 in Wilkinsburg, PA

Bunny Yeager is a well-known photographer, author (of some 30 books on photography), actress and former top model.

In 1946 Bunny Yeager’s family moved to Miami. In 1949 Bunny designed what is believed to be the first bikini in the US. Halston in his use of leopard print design. Any model who needed a 2-piece suit would contact Bunny in the early 1950’s in Miami. She had plans to launch a line of her bikini designs, but never got the necessary funding.

Yeager’s first cover photo was a shot of her friend Maria Stinger with 2 cheetahs. She met Bettie Page in 1954 and that year she worked with her extensively, shooting close to 1,000 images. Bettie was one of the first models she photographed nude, as most models at that time weren’t willing to do nudes. The iconic photo of Ursula Andress on the beach from Dr. No in 1962 is also the work of Bunny Yeager. She had heard about a new men’s magazine called Playboy and sent them the photos of Bettie she took at Africa USA in Boca Raton. These would become her first Playboy centerfold.

In 1959 Bunny Yeager was listed on the Top 10 Women in Photography by the Professional Photography Association of America. This list included Dorothea Lang, Margaret Borke-White and Ruth Orkin.

Bunny shot her models with sex appeal and irony, helping to re-define what “sexy” meant. Hers was a world populated beautiful women who exuded confidence and self-awareness. The impact these photos had on the American cultural landscape was immense. From live animals to firefighters, if it told an interesting story then it was part of Bunny’s oeuvre. Howard Hughes used to call Bunny to find out who her latest “find” was, and she taught Sammy Davis Jr. how to shoot photographs.

Yeager was played by Sarah Paulson in the 2005 film “The Notorious Bettie Page”. She defined the glamour of the pin-up era with her refreshingly sexy photographs.

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in Bunny Yeager’s work, especially after a successful exhibition of her portraits at the Andy Warhol Museum in 2010. She has had a number of exhibits in the Miami area and has exhibited at Schuster Galerie Berlin.

In 2012 Bunny Yaeger debuted her swimwear line for Bruno Banani, launched fashion week, Berlin. There is a permanent exhibit of Bunny’s work in their corporate collection as well as memorabilia.