Ron Harris (photographer)
Encyclopedia
Ron Harris is an American erotic photographer and television director.
Ron Harris was a fashion photographer in New York for over 40 years, working with fashion magazines Elle, Vogue and Cosmopolitan and others. Harris has over 25,000 published photographs and over 450 Art Director Awards and 13 gold medals for artistic excellence. During his photographic career, Harris created more than 15,000 fashion and commercial advertisements and produced & directed over 900 National Television Commercials for Fortune 500 Companies.
In 1982, Harris created and directed the first sexually implicit exercise program, Aerobicise. He later created :20 Minute Workout
The :20 Minute Workout
20 Minute Workout is a Canadian-produced aerobics-based television program that ran from 1983 to 1984, in which "a bevy of beautiful girls" demonstrated exercise on a rotating platform.-Series background:...
. These aerobics
Aerobics
Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness...
-based television programs were broadcast on cable television. "Aerobicise" premiered on July 4, 1981 on ShowTime making it the worlds first aerobics show and video line. Aerobicise was nominated for a Cable Ace award and became the highest grossing exercise video series of its time. In 1985, Harris wrote the book Aerobicise 20 minutes a day published and distributed by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
in 1985.
Bob Klinginsmith, former President of Paramount Home Video, said in the Hollywood Reporter "If Leonardo da Vinci were alive today, he would be doing what Ron Harris does with a camera".
The Aerobicise series was released by Paramount Home Video between 1982 and 1995 and is available on VHS and DVD formats.
Harris produced and directed television programs for Playboy Television between 1995 and 1999, such as Ron Harris' Camera Up-Close & Dangerous, Ron Harris' Star Shapes, a series of seven one hour specials and Naturals a series of five one hour specials.
Harris photographs nudes in a classical, glamorous style. Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
called him "The King of Erotica" and Playboy Magazine called him "The Granddaddy of Soft-core".
In 1995, he released the video, Totally Nude Aerobics which was re-released in 2000 in DVD format. Harris launched his "Harris Archive" in 2003, a website mainly featuring softcore
Softcore
Softcore pornography is a form of filmic or photographic pornography or erotica that is less sexually explicit than hardcore pornography. It is intended to tickle and arouse men and women. Softcore pornography depicts nude and semi-nude performers engaging in casual social nudity or non-graphic...
photography and erotic movies.
In 1996, Harris launched RonHarris.com, an adult-oriented website featuring models between the ages of 18 and 24, in its first month, the site received over a million visitors. In 1999, Harris introduced a website Ron's Angels that, according to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, offered "the eggs
Oocyte
An oocyte, ovocyte, or rarely ocyte, is a female gametocyte or germ cell involved in reproduction. In other words, it is an immature ovum, or egg cell. An oocyte is produced in the ovary during female gametogenesis. The female germ cells produce a primordial germ cell which undergoes a mitotic...
of eight model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
s for auction over the internet" with bids starting "between US$15,000 and US$150,000, depending on the model". Harris describes his idea as, "Darwin's natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
at its very best". Critics have stated that this equates to profit-based eugenics
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
.