What distinguished Swedish publication Private, the world's first sexually explicit magazine, in the 1980s? Female lust. After 20 years of photographing mostly amateur models, publisher Berth Miltoncame to believe that females were more sexually ravenous than males. In the 1980s he became obsessed with portraying women as the voracious hedonists of his experience. Always controlling with Private, in the '80s he became maniacal, determined that the magazine bear no creative stamp but his own. After nights of heavy drinking he'd return to his offices and tear up his designer's layouts, redoing them to his taste; anyone who challenged him was fired. After moving the Privateheadquarters to Barcelona, he shot most of the photo sets in his own home and garden, playing out his most intimate fantasies in the pages of his magazine. There is no doubt that the 1980s were a dark time for Berth Milton, but his personal torment resulted in some inspired photography. Blunter and more emphatic than his 1970s work, this is the 1980s in all its self-obsessed, big-haired glory.
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