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I've lost count. More than a hundred centerfolds. It's not about the nude girl anymore. It was when I was twenty-five. But hopefully I've evolved beyond that. I mean, you don't want to be fifty-four years old and looking up girls' skirts, do ya?

Centerfolds have taught me patience and tenacity.

If they were insecure, they wouldn't be in here with their clothes off.

I remember the first Playmate I looked at. I was fourteen. 1964. At the time, I wasn't thinking about making a career taking pictures of nude women. I think I had a very normal reaction.

My parents were religious. At first, they were concerned about my career, and they went to talk about it with the minister. He removed their worries. He said, "There's nothing wrong with the naked body. God created that." As time went by, they even started to enjoy Hef's parties.

Architects use ivy to cover flaws. We use clothes.

Once a year, you'll get a girl who's flawless.

You want a breast to look round. Highlight one side, shadow on the other. Light it straight on and it'll look flat.

Twins who wish to be photographed nude are hard to find. Triplets, even more so.

It's a different dynamic shooting twins. Most of them are very close, but there's always a little jealousy over who's getting the attention. But they're always more fun than one.

Shooting a centerfold in a phone booth is tough. Stewardesses in an airplane bathroom, too.

Every guy has a stewardess fantasy.

First thing I look at? The face. Always the face. She's gotta be pretty. Without pretty, I don't care how good the body is. Bar rules don't apply here.

They say the most beautiful women in the world are from Reykjavi­k. But we spent a month in Iceland, and we had a very hard time getting girls. The women there will dance on the bar with no clothes on when everybody's drunk, but they didn't want to be seen nude in a magazine. They said, "Look, we live in a very small country. Everybody knows us."

English women are prudish. Their society isn't as open as ours is. Their weather is terrible.

The Japanese have a very rigid culture. But what you see on top is not what you see underneath. There are subway cars hired out in Tokyo filled with girls wearing schoolgirl uniforms. They're dressed up in little skirts, with book bags on their shoulders. The train moves like it's a real train, and the guys walk around and feel up the girls. It's a real problem on the Tokyo subways, with men actually doing that. So some guy designed a club to fulfill the fantasy.

I'm not sure why they're shy in Thailand.

You put Carmen Electra in front of a camera and all you need to do is push a button.

Marriage? Don't do it.

I married a Playboy bunny. Didn't work out. It's very difficult for a woman to be in a relationship with someone who sees nude women every day. If the tide was turned, I'd have a hard time with it. I understand.

How did I get started? When I was young, I started pointing my camera at girls and discovered that, jeez, they really like this. Once I figured that one out...

It takes five days to shoot a centerfold. One crunched-up foot will ruin the picture.

My assistant, Chuck, is the most patient guy I've ever met. I asked him, "How did you learn to be so patient?" He said, "I grew up with four sisters."

I'm not out until four in the morning anymore. But you never lose your membership in the mile-high club.

I have a lot of respect for women. I really do. People think that because I shoot them nude, I don't. But it's just the opposite. Remember, they came to me. They all say it was a great part of their lives. Never once have I heard anyone say she regretted it.

Is the last thing I want to see at the end of a hard day of work a naked woman? Well, I wouldn't say that....

No one has shot more centerfolds than Arny Freytag, a Playboy photographer since 1976. He has also shot Joan Collins (December '83), Goldie Hawn (January '85), Carmen Electra (three times), and, of course, Pamela Anderson (twice).

Published in the October 2004 issue

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