Photographers turn wives into pinups

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Two California women have a different kind of photography business -- creating pinup photographs of wives and girlfriends for soldiers stationed overseas.

Pink Kitty Studios, owned by Lori Mann and Adrienne Cragnotti, operates out of a hot pink house in Los Angeles. Mann is the photographer and Cragnotti the stylist.

A stylist is needed because many women want to reproduce poses made famous for earlier generations of soldiers by Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Jane Mansfield.

"The gals often wear classic clothing, and we have lots of props that are throw-backs to that World War II era," Mann said.

Pink Kitty brings in hair stylists to reproduce the page-boy bobs and other retro hairstyles.

The studio can turn photos into posters and even calendars -- but many women send CDs for husbands and boyfriends who have laptop computers but little wall space.

Mann said being a woman-only business gives Pink Kitty an advantage -- "many of the women state that they're not sure how their husbands would feel about them shedding their clothes for a male photographer while they are stationed 10,000 miles away."