Completely unexpected, in 1982 JH got a call from the German edition of PLAYBOY magazine. Many photographers from around the world tried to get commissions from PLAYBOY, but JH never had had contact to that people. And now they called him.
The reason was that the editor-in-chief of the German edition had seen a photo made by JH, the German model Martina shot at a hidden place in Malaysia (see picture on the right), and he is supposed to have said “I want that man!“
The editor-in-chief invited him for a talk to MUNICH and told him he had two wishes. If JH could fulfill one of them, they would be in business.
One wish was to get Hanna Schygulla to undress for PLAYBOY. Hanna was at that time the muse of the famous independent German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and already an international movie star. JH had to answer in the negative. He knew Hanna, and he was sure she wouldn't do that at all.
And LUFTHANSA and PLAYBOY made a deal:
large billboards with the PLAYBOY cover were posted in all German airports:
"Fly with Gabi…"
The success was tremendous, for PLAYBOY, for LUFTHANSA, and for JH, and over night he became a globally known photographer for girl photography.
In the following years and decades, JHs girl photography became published globally. But not only in magazines, he also still did lots of fashion photography for lingerie and cosmetics advertisements and catalouges.
As a renowned PLAYBOY photographer, JH became invited in several countries to more then onehundred television talk shows, home stories, reports and features about him and his photography, often together with his fetish model muse Natalia Muehlhausen.
JH did hundreds of assignment jobs in his studios. But his favourite shooting places were (and still are) outdoors. In cities, at the sea, in the jungle, in deserts, in bizarre volcanic landscapes...
He loved this life, it was the perfect life for him - travelling, photography, adventure, often quite dangerous - but so what, and always with the most beautiful women on the planet...
His, in the sense of the word, coolest (or rather coldest) production was in GERMANY in the ALPS, at a mountain cabin with his LUI model Dorothea. A few days of heavy snowstorm which made it impossible to leave the hut where they both were trapped, and then unbelievable sunny winter days for a perfect shooting.
But JH doesn't like the cold, he prefers tropical climate.
To make up for this, his next job took him right away to the SPANISH island of MALLORCA, where he discovered this impressiv tall, sporty and big busty model, then to a NORTH AFRICAN desert, then to the DANISH island of BORNHOLM with the beautiful tall and slim blonde Jacqueline from BERLIN, and shortly afterwards to CHINA for an unimaginable adventure trip on which he met the incredible Mei Ling... but that's another exciting story.
Commenting on his success as a girl or nude photographer, JH says:
"There was luck, too. There were of course quite some other very good photographers in this genre. And, of course, one had to have a comprehensive command of the photographic craft. Because photography is nothing but a craft, and photographers who think of themselves as artists have not understood something.
But, things were as important as to be at the right place at the right time, to have the right and sensitive contact to nude models with perfect bodies and beautiful faces (not only pretty - beautiful!), no matter if amateur or top or supermodels, to meet the right people in this business and to understand their vague ideas and implement them in such a way that they were one hundred, even a thousand percent satisfied, and also and above all to decide with whom to do business and with whom not (there were and are many half-silk types in this scene, publishers of magazines and others, most of which fortunately no longer exist today because of their way of doing business) also were deciding factors.
Not only being a photographer but also a businessman, I underwent a hard process of learning. But this process was also part of my success.”