Say <i> Cheese</i> ! But in This Lingerie, Does It Really Matter?

There are many ways, I suppose, to discover that you’ve lost touch with your society, but one of the most convincing is to walk into a respectable portrait studio and find that half of its current business is photographing women either partially nude or wearing lingerie, posing on brass beds or in bathtubs or with feathered boas wrapped around them.

I’m not talking about the kind of photo studio that guys used to set up in their garages or loft apartments. I’m talking about the kind of professional photographer who shoots your wedding, your kids’ graduations and the family portrait. And I’m not talking about desperate young girls--we’re talking schoolteachers, lawyers, homemakers and company executives.

Jack and Myra Justice are about as unassuming a couple as you could find. The parents of three children, they run the Perfect Image studio in Garden Grove and do the normal range of studio portraiture. But up to 15 times a month, Jack Justice photographs women who want to give their husbands or boyfriends something to remember them by.

Like the stunning brunette married to the UPS deliveryman, photographed while stepping out of a packing crate and wearing her husband’s hat and uniform, unbuttoned down the front.

Talk about special delivery. . . .

“For me, this is one of the most creative stages of photography that you can do,” Justice said. “These are women who a lot of their husbands or boyfriends read Playboy or Penthouse and, to a certain extent, they get jealous of them looking at other women.”

The Justices have run their studio for about five years. Citing the public’s ever-relaxing attitude toward sex, Jack Justice estimated that as many as half of the area’s photography studios will do lingerie or semi-nude photography.

“We’ve had women as old as 62 and as heavy as almost 300 pounds,” he said. “I didn’t ask their weight, but we’ve had some very heavy ladies in here.”

The lingerie shoots are popular, but only about 5% of the customers opt for fully nude shots, Justice said. “Most decide it’s better to tease and entice than to show everything God gave them.” Others may try a nude session out of curiosity but not buy any pictures. Some ask that the film be shredded afterward.

“It’s a very special gift” to give, Justice said. “We emphasize the soft, romantic look. We stay away from the hard Playboy or Penthouse look.”

Patti Silvestri is a 26-year-old preschool teacher who came in to Justice’s studio last week to be photographed as a birthday present for her husband of four months. And while the pictures are for her husband, she said, “it’s also for me because I get to come in and relax and get pampered and feel beautiful for one day, and give a gift to my husband that I know he’ll like. So, it’s for both of us.”

The pampering comes from a full hour of makeup that Cheryl Centonze performs before the subjects are photographed. The customers then are photographed over two hours and are given 18 to 20 photos to choose from. The average customer spends about $150.

“A few women come in and they’re very shy,” Myra Justice said. “They’ll stand in the (makeup) room and say, ‘I’m shy.’ They’ll peek out and have on a long flannel robe that we give them. They’ll come out with the robe on, take a shot, then put it back on. But toward the end of the session, it’s like ‘Who cares?’ ”

Silvestri said she’s always “been a picture person” and thinks her husband will like the gift because she gave him a sexy photo from their honeymoon, and he keeps that one in his wallet. She told her husband that Myra would be the photographer when, in fact, Jack does all the photographing. “He’s a very private person. He doesn’t take too kindly to me going into a bar fully clothed when there are guys around, let alone taking my picture with hardly anything on.”

While getting made up, Silvestri, who is pretty with big, dark eyes, demeans her looks. She’s worried about her teeth, her thighs, her breasts. “Let’s face it,” she said, “every girl wants to come in and look like (super model) Cindy Crawford.” Conceding that everyone can’t, she says: “One thing about being a teacher, the kids don’t care what you look like.”

She’s looking forward to the photo session, amply relaxed by two vodka gimlets before she got there and a glass of wine provided by the Justices.

And if her husband proves ungrateful of her pictures?

“I don’t think he will, but if he does, I’ll say, ‘You know what, there are a lot of other guys who would like to see them.’ ”

Hoo-ee. How times have changed.

Used to be, a guy would be thankful on his birthday just to get a shirt and striped tie.