Personal Pinups : Gulf War Spurs a Rush on ‘Intimate Portraits’ as Very Special Valentines

Before the Persian Gulf War broke out, Navy corpsman Kristen Woodman had heard of boudoir photography, but never thought of herself as a potential pinup.

Then, with just a few weeks to go before Valentine’s Day, the 21-year-old learned her boyfriend, also a Navy corpsman, would soon be deployed to Saudi Arabia. For Woodman, that was the push she needed: Last week, she donned lingerie and gloves, put on a little extra makeup and posed for a San Diego photographer.

“It’s not your everyday gift, you know. It’s more personal than a card and candy,” says Woodman, whose boyfriend, Navy corpsman Ben Garcia, was due to report to the Twentynine Palms-based 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade on Monday. “It’s kind of like the ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ thing. And I would much prefer him looking at me than someone else in a magazine.”

Eager to make this Feb. 14 memorable for their husbands and boyfriends overseas, scores of women throughout Southern California have done the same thing. Particularly in communities near Navy and Marine bases, photographers who shoot “intimate portraits” report a surge in military-related business--including some women who are about to be deployed themselves.

Barbara Steinberg, who photographed Woodman, says the Valentine’s Day rush began in early January as women tried to beat the weeks-long delay in mail service to the Persian Gulf. But other photographers say their calendars have been full ever since Operation Desert Shield began in August.

“When they first started shipping out we got a real flurry, and then a certain amount this Christmas,” says Karina Winder-Cortopassi, who runs a boudoir studio in Irvine, near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. “Now we’re getting people . . . ordering more to send their honeys as valentines.”

And since fighting broke in the Persian Gulf, one photographer reports he is meeting a different kind of clientele: enlisted women posing for themselves--and for posterity.

“We’re getting some women who are in the military and just got their marching orders. They come roaring in because it might be the last time anyone ever will see their body,” Beverly Hills photographer Miles Patrick says. He calls these clients “women who have heard the bell toll.”

Patrick says he and his wife, Sandy, recently have photographed several nurses who expected to be deployed, as well as one Air Force cadet whose mother accompanied her to her appointment.

“They were quite emotional about the whole deal. This girl was going to be in a risky spot,” Patrick says. “They say, ‘Here it is, that’s what God gave me, and this might be the last documentary proof that I was here.’ ”

Boudoir photographers, most of whom charge from $150 to $600, say the kinds of pictures they take depend on the client. Some go for kittenish poses, complete with frilly underwear and such props as fans, parasols and feather boas. Others prefer artistic nudes.

Some military wives pose in their husbands’ uniforms, combining dress blues or camouflage with a pair of spike heels.

The resulting images are “kind of like a fantasy,” explained a blond woman who sat at a hairstyling table at Elliot Photography in Hollywood, preparing for her session. Like most boudoir clients, the 21-year-old nursing student was posing as a gift for her beau--an Air Force pilot, due to be deployed any day, she said.

For her, as for the majority of military clients in search of the perfect Valentine’s Day present, how steamy the photos could be was dictated in part by where the pictures were going to be sent.

If your beau is on a ship in the gulf, nudity is no problem--the mail that arrives there is not subject to Saudi censorship. But if he is stationed in the Saudi Arabian desert, a photo that exposes even knees and forearms can earn an obscene rating and be returned to sender.

In response to such restrictions, some boudoir customers supplement their sessions with “glamour” portraits, which focus on the head and shoulders.

Shelly’s husband was deployed to Saudi Arabia from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in August.

“I think a lot of women wouldn’t normally do this,” says the 22-year-old, who works in an Orange County photography studio but had never planned to become a client. “It’s very unlike me. But under the situation . . . it’s a boost to morale, so to speak. It’s better than a crossword puzzle.”

Shelly hid her photos in the bottom of her husband’s luggage last summer--and she hid them so well, they not only surprised him, but they also got past the censors. Her secret: she doctored a photo album, slipping the scantily clad shots behind more wholesome family portraits.

“He said he loved them,” Shelly says, remembering the first letter she received from the front, in which he admitted he had pinned them up on the wall. Later, when she went to a support group of military wives, she heard about the photos from her friends.

“I just about died. Women at our group meeting said, ‘My husband saw your pictures. He wants me to get them done,’ ” Shelly says, adding that any woman who thinks her husband will keep the photos to himself is dead wrong. “They want to show them off. I guess they’re really proud.”

“It’s kind of a given,” Woodman, the San Diego-based Navy corpsman, said a few hours after her boudoir photo session. “Men like to look at women in lingerie. Everybody knows this, whether they admit it or not. . . . I don’t think of it as pornography. I enjoyed myself today, and if he gets some enjoyment out of it, too, that’s great.”

Liz Lang, a 39-year-old former Navy Seabee, shared Woodman’s outlook. Lang, whose husband, Petty Officer 1st Class J. Lee Lang, is on call to leave any minute, intended to give her boudoir photos as a valentine. But fear of his departure made her change plans.

“I don’t know when this phone call is going to come. I couldn’t wait,” she said, explaining that in August, a last-minute call announced that he was headed for the Gulf. He stayed 33 days and returned.

Now, as the 38-year-old Navy steelworker awaits his orders, he says he is enjoying what he calls the “very sensual pictures.” The one of his wife wrapped in a mint green feather boa sits next to the bed in an antique frame.

But most are kept hidden in a drawer, including one in which, “for a giggle,” his wife donned the protective leather gloves and safety glasses he wears at work--and little else.