Youth.
Jo Hammar who is of SWEDISH origin was growing up in the aftermath of Word War II. Father electronics engineer, mother former model, one brother.
Sports: skiff rowing, training in the youth crew of the national Olympic team of his hometown.
Interests: photography of people and nature. Natural sciences, especially astronomy! After school hours studying, working and learning at a nearby astronomical observatory.
High School graduation with 18 years, with a mediocre grade (good in art and natural sciences, but lousy in math).
Originally he had intended to study astronomy and astrophysics, but the lack of mathematical talent made him abandon that plan.
He accepted this, buried his dream of a scientific career and set himself a new goal.
Instead: Air Force! Top Gun and so on...
With 16 years JH won the 1st prize in an international scientifical astronomical competition “Evaluation of the Light Curve of the Star Algol (β Persei), the Eclipsing Binary BD +20º 785 (6.0m) and an Attempt to Orbit Determination“.
It was a unique and character-shaping chapter in is life. It was the time of the Cold War, also of the terrible and unjust Vietnam War.
Despite of his successful career in the Air Force, the global political and military development made him think twice whether this profession would be the right choice for him for the rest of his life.
Air Force.
Well. JH learned quickly that "Top Gun" was preceded by a hard selection procedure and a lengthy military and aviation training.
But he made it. Air force officer, fighter bomber pilot, intelligence officer, survival expert, close combat specialist, wing commander.
JH survived two serious air accidents - one with a fighter bomber jet from which he rescued himself with the ejection seat, the other one, years later as a private pilot, with a seaplane.
This era - the sixties, the seventies of the last century - also was the age of sociological, cultural and sexual awakening. The world changed significantly, and JH felt that he should be part of it in his very own way.
After many years in uniform he decided to start something new. He finally resigned from the Air Force and made another dream come true: becoming a freelance photographer.
Photographer.
After his air force time JH moved to the city of HAMBURG, GERMANY, at that time one of the global centres of the media business.
He started first of all with advertising photography for international clients, then also with fashion / lingerie, and became successful in quite a short time.
JH became known as that photographer who even did advertising - and of course also fashion and lingerie photograhpy - mostly with a strong erotic touch.
These fields of activity were soon complemented by assignments from the music industry. Shooting classic interpreters, pop artists as well as rockstars for their lp covers.
For several years JH was a leading photographer for the music scene in GERMANY and beyond.
Want to know more? Read here - "Commercial Photography".
Then, with a phone call from the German edition of PLAYBOY magazine, his life changed dramatically. The editor-in-chief wanted him for a very special job:
he asked him if he knew a LUFTHANSA flight attendend who would be willing to be photographed nude for PLAYBOY. Well, JH happened to actually know one, and he shot the cover story of flight attendend Gabi Annicette which caused an uproar in international media.
Over night, JH became a globally known photographer. PLAYBOY editions ’round the world printed the
story of flight attendend Gabi. This led to assignment photo jobs also from other big “girl magazines“ from around the globe.
As a consequence, JH made “girl photography“ his main profession for several decades.
JH's girl pictures were published in the leading girl magazines on all five continents - PLAYBOY (GLOBAL), PENTHOUSE (global), LUI (FRANCE and EUROPE), NEWLOOK (FRANCE and EUROPE), EXCELSIOR (ITALY and EUROPE), SCOOP (HONG KONG and ASIA), and many others.
His style, his covers and Girls of the Month influenced more than two decades.
Although as a photographer JH also got many prominent women nude in front of his camera, such as the breathtaking Angela Spilker, later wife of HOLLYWOOD actor legend Barry Newman, whom he discovered in Germany when she was seventeen and of whom he says she was the most beautiful woman he ever photographed in his whole life
(see PENTHOUSE cover above right and magazine double-page spread right, here called Vanessa),
or many an actress or singer, such a VIP status was never decisive for him.
What was important to JH was not the social status but the beauty of the women he photographed.
Often "The Girl Next Door" proved to be the discovery of the year.
If you want to know more about his "nude girls" work - read here "Nude Photography".
JH developed early an interest and his very special own style for ”fetish photography”, more precisely for "rubber fetish photography". It was in the seventies, eighties and nineties when the RUBBER FETISH SCENE developed worldwide - in AMSTERDAM, HAMBURG, LONDON, NEW YORK - in which JH played a decisive role.
JH became known as the doyen of rubber fetish photography. His unique way of composing his rubber fetish motives is still today unrivaled.
Although JH always did this kind of photography on the side - economically it was a niche compared to fashion, advertising, music business and nude - he is known to many people mainly through his rubber fetish photos, through his incomparable models in rubber outfits and in unique environments and situations.
So far two photo art books of JH have been published on this subject, "FETISH RUBBER" and "FEMALE RUBBER".
The second one became a great success, and although it had a print run of 30,000 copies (which is absolutely unusual for a photo art book), it has long been sold out.
Today these books can only still be found on the internet.
Two further new, large-format and unique books on the topics of "Rubber Fetish" and ”Wild Nudes" are now, after a very long break, in the planning stage and are scheduled for publication in 2021 or 2022.
Want to read and see more about JH’s rubber fetish photography? Go here:
”Fetish Photography”
This was also the time when the close cooperation between JH and Natalia Muehlhausen began. First being his makeup artist, trained in HAMBURG, GERMANY, and SANTA MONICA, CA/USA, soon after she became a model and also nude model (PENTHOUSE, PLAYBOY television USA, and many others), TV actress and JH's muse for his rubber fetish photography.
Rubber fetish photos of Natalia were always exclusively photographed by JH. Her pictures and videos became world famous and a synonym for this genre.
(see also top right, the blonde in the picture at the latex fashion shooting in Hollywood)
Natalia! is that global rubber fetish icon and, today, the unrivaled "Rubber Mistress" Natalia! (www.natalia.pro), who resides and gives her "rubber sessions" in Germany.
Touristic manager of a wilderness hotel in the TAMAN NEGARA, the deepest and at that time untouched rainforest of MALAYSIA.
This time was a unique opportunity for JH to study the nature of the Malay wilderness. From here he organized his photo safaris into the ancient rainforests of ASIA. Wildlife photography, travel reports, but also nude photography with the most beautiful Asian and European models - rare photos of beauties in untouched nature.
General manager of the globally known and (in)famous nightclub "CAFÈ KEESE“, located at the red light district St. Pauli in the city of HAMBURG, GERMANY.
Here with a famous guest, the young Natalia Muehlhausen.
But JH was and always remained being a photographer, and he always returned to his main profession.
"As long as my clients book me, value my work and pay me well, I will do this job," JH once said on television. "I would be a fool if I didn't. Besides - this is an unbelievable life, full of adventures and of beautiful women, and it's a profession that really fulfils me."
Director of a crocodile breeding farm in VENEZUELA as part of an international nature preservation programme of the United Nations.
And, much later,
President of a television production company in HOLLYWOOD, CA. Producing soaps (Oh God, how embarrassing! But it paid the bills!) and wildlife reports (Yeah! That was his real intention!).
Traveling and living.
JH has travelled the world, and he has lived in various places and countries, a.o. in KIRUNA/SWEDEN, in the U.S.A. in WEST HOLLYWOOD and MALIBU/CALIFORNIA, in HAMBURG/GERMANY, in BARCELONA/SPAIN, on the CANARY ISLANDS, on several Caribbean islands like BARBADOS and NEVIS, on the PHILIPPINES, in HONG KONG, MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE, VENEZUELA and others.
The places where JH prefers to live are not the big cities. "London and L.A. are for making business, and now and then for having fun and wild times. But really worth living in are the remote places, the areas where nature still reigns, the last hidden paradises."
JH's taste in music was strongly influenced by his Californian years. The Eagles ("Hotel California“), The Beach Boys (“California Girls“), Janis Joplin (“Summertime“), Aerosmith ("Crazy"), but also nowadays artists such as Mary J. Blige ("Family Affair"), Prince ("Purple Rain"), Rihanna ("Love On The Brain“), as well as the outstanding video with Laetitia Casta ("Te Amo") and others.
So it is only consequent that today JH lives together with his young wife Helena, who is as passionate about nature as he is, together with their cats secluded in a remote place what they call "our wilderness paradise".