Vintage Pinups - Restoring 50's Pin Up Girls

By John W. DeFeo

Three years ago I began collecting 35mm pinup photographs. I was surprised to see that the majority of these pinup slides from the 1950s were deteriorating. It didn’t make sense to me that most family snapshots from the era are in great shape, but these pinups were not - so I decided to investigate.

In the 1950s, obscenity laws were still on the books in many states, so photographers may have developed nude photos at home as a precaution. Unfortunately, unlike Kodachrome, these do-it-yourself films are not archival.