Naked Ambition
Seen at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival.
As we follow the life of Bunny Yeager in “Naked Ambition,” we are fascinated every step of the way by how this woman forged her path as a stunningly beautiful woman who started as a model, moved to being a photographer, all the while working to balance a life with her husband and their two children. It’s not an easy life, but what Yeager- known as the prettiest photographer in the world- accomplished is what anyone hopes for in life, personal success in job, and life. That she didn’t see herself as a groundbreaker isn’t a shock- many don’t- but as she live until the age of 85, more and more people discovered her work, and saw something genuinely creative in it, which has set the template for much of what came after ever since.
One of the most interesting aspects of the film Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch have made is how everyone interviewed is related to the work of Bunny Yeager. No where is that more pronounced than in the dynamic between her children. They both have very different ideas on the value of their mother’s work. The eldest daughter doesn’t see her nude photography of models as respectful to women, while the younger daughter- whom now works to present the collection- is proud of it. Both respect their mother, whom passed away in 2014, but their views of her work is compelling given how both women were exposed to it as children, and how that shaped their ideas of its place as feminist art as adults. I understand both vantage points, and I think their consistency is admirable.
The film might get some interest, certainly, for the extensive display of nudity and pinup photographs throughout the film, but we don’t really think about it in those terms as we follow Bunny’s life. She did this not out of a desire to create erotic images, but to celebrate the female form. We hear the words of some of her models, and their families, including an excerpt of a phone call Yeager shared with Bettie Page in the ’90s. Through their words, and the words of historians, fans and archivists, we get a picture of a woman who did what she did not out of some desire to be revolutionary, but out of a desire to help provide for her family. That it’s endured- even if an age where hard core pornography is more accessible than ever- is a credit to just how strong her eye as an artist was. “Naked Ambition” balances both views of her work beautifully.
