His contribution to Playgirl’s visual identity cannot be overstated. Jobst started out as the magazine’s Art Director, but the fact that he was promoted to Creative Director in 1974 (through March ‘75) speaks volumes for his leadership at a time when the glossy attracted plenty of mainstream advertisers (Kool, Kent, Amaretto di Saronno, Pioneer, Maybelline…)
All the covers he designed/art-directed—save for three—feature a couple, sharing either an intimate moment (see September ‘73 and June ‘74) or unbridled, infectious joy (see February ‘74 and September ‘74): a visual statement that conveyed the “magazine for women”’s mission no less effectively than the Editor’s columns: “I’m a woman like you,” writes Marin Scott Milam in July ‘73, “who appreciates men, who loves life, enjoys sex. I laugh, cry, feel, care. Isn’t it nice that we’re finally admitting it?”
The extreme close-ups of a man and a woman locked in a blissful embrace are a common theme in Jobst’s photography—with either the man on top (see the September ’73 cover) or the woman on top (elsewhere). In fact, close-ups and extreme close-ups appear to be Jobst’s signature style, his way of capturing and celebrating intimacy. Did we mention the many handsome men he lensed for Playgirl in its formative years? Jobst’s ‘queer eye for the straight girl’ helped establish Playgirl’s popularity with gay readers and cement its place in the history of male erotic photography. As documented by two photo books of his: The Natural Man (1975), the third and final hardcover book ever published by Playgirl, and Jobst Nudes (1978), 46 pages of black and white male nudes.
