
Photography and Text by Tony Ward, Copyright 2022
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A Ten Year Muse
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This was the last sitting with Holly. It took place at her apartment in the Spring of 2005. Holly was in a good mood that day. Whenever she posed for me she always appeared to be happy and joyful. I suppose part of the reason was because we had great success in making a series of remarkable pictures that graced the pages of magazines all over the world for a decade.
As I roll back the timeline of my discovery of Holly, it began in 1995 while I was casting for models to test shoot for Penthouse magazine. Delilah’s Den was a regular haunt. It was by far the most popular Gentlemen’s Club in Philadelphia at the time. I was usually successful in finding an exotic dancer working a shift that might be intrigued by the notion of posing for a famous national magazine.
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Me and my assistant went to check out the line up on a Friday night. We settled in seating right near the center stage so that I could have a really good look at the talent by trying to gauge which dancer was the most photogenic. Penthouse was very picky in terms of the women they published in the magazine. Every casting had to pass the scrutiny of the magazines legendary founder, Bob Guccione. He was the editor in chief of all of the work I had published from 1995 to 2005. Holly was one of Guccione’s favorites.
As the evening festivities began I noticed a tall blond taking orders for drinks from customers in the section I was sitting in. At Delilah’s they called these waitresses “shot girls”. They saved the customer from a long walk and wait to be served at the various bars scattered around the huge club.
As the shot girl meandered closer to my table I took notice of how beautiful she was. When she asked if I wanted a drink, I immediately asked when she was going to be performing on stage, assuming she was also one of the dancers to perform that evening . She flatly stated “I don’t dance”. That was the beginning of our ten year run as photographer and muse. Although Holly didn’t dance, she never shied away from my camera.
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