Welcome
By James Bontemps
Welcome to my Blog. My name is James Bontemps and I am the Founder and Editor of Glass Houses Magazine.
I was born in Europe and lived there until moving to the U.S. and then Canada, where I mostly reside today.
I moved with my parents to Southern California when I was about 10 years old in the late 1960’s. My father worked in the film industry, mostly doing camera work as well as whatever jobs he could find in the industry, and he was aware of a growing underground industry of porn films, particularly in the U.S. that he thought would be a good way to make money. He was pretty insightful about it, if you look at how it is now an over $10 billion a year industry.
Part of his logic (or justification) to be involved in what was considered a sleazy business came from our background and upbringing in Europe. Things are a lot different there. It was normal, not unusual to go to a beach and see topless and fully nude girls of all ages.
Advertising was much more risque. Magazine ads, and society in general embraced and celebrated nudity and sex as natural.
My own experience was to be literally exposed to all of this at a very young age.
My father connected with the right people and was soon working on a lot of the early ‘Golden Age of Porn’ films as well as a lot of amateur content.
By 1970, my father was very successful in the industry, and we moved from a small place in L.A. up to a beautiful house on Mulholland Drive. I would have been 13 or 14 at the time, and I have vivid memories of crazy parties and amateur filming at our house and around our pool that involved a lot of young girls with the tightest hot bodies.
They were incredibly wild times. I lost my virginity with a group of young girls at one of those parties.
Along with the films, I also loved to ‘read’ my father’s Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler magazines that were never hidden, but lay all around the house to help stimulate the young actors prior to a scene, along with the ‘fluffers’.
I dreamed of being one of those photographers – shooting the hottest young women nude and creating beautiful art. For me, there was a difference between the porn films and the photos in the magazines. The latter was really art and about beauty, and the former was more about stimulation and raw basic sexual satisfaction.
My mother was an art teacher who unsurprisingly didn’t see eye-to-eye with my father and they divorced in 1970 shortly after my Dad moved up to Mulholland Drive. My Mom got a nice little house in Santa Monica, and I went to school there until I was old enough to move in with my father, although I spent a whole lot of time at my Dad’s house.
The years from 1971 to 1980 were the most amazing. I couldn’t begin to cover that here. Maybe another day.
In 1982, I moved up to Toronto, Canada, where I worked in a bunch of jobs as I worked toward my dream of being a professional photographer. My father was able to line up some jobs in the film and TV industry, and I continued to hone my photography skills.
I came up with the idea of the name ‘Glass Houses’ from the saying ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ Of course I saw that in a whole different light. My father’s house on Mulholland had these huge floor to ceiling folding glass doors at the back, overlooking the pool, so you could easily see what was going on inside.
My own ideas about shooting nude and erotic photography differed from most photographers, because I did not want my models to have a lot of makeup, or to be directed to pose in unnatural ways. I wanted to shoot them as naturally as possible, as a kind of voyeur looking at them through the glass windows of a house. My favorite Penthouse and Playboy pictorials were the ones that looked the most natural, and were in real settings like outdoors, on a boat, in a bed, on a couch, or in a hot tub.
LISA WELCH (19) – PLAYBOY 1980
So, Glass Houses Photography was created, and for years I primarily worked shooting nude and erotic photography.
I founded an online magazine – Glass Houses Magazine, inspired by those vintage 1970’s Playboy & Penthouse magazines that I loved, and to fulfill my life-long dream.
The magazine initially was just a medium to showcase and share my own original work, but did end up with guest covers, and eventually guest pictorials.
As I am aging, both my legs and eyes are not as good as they once were, and photographing a session was becoming more of a chore than pleasure for me, so this past year I retired from actively photographing professionally, and am now focused on Glass Houses Magazine and my Blog here.
My blog shares some my thoughts and stories, including a lot of my exclusive unpublished work, as well as being able to share some of the content that I love.
Along with my own original work, I have a ‘Nudity & Sex on Film & TV’ category, and a ’18+ Music Video’ category.
Certain posts may require you to subscribe. Subscription is ALWAYS Free. I never charge for you to view content. My goal is to share as much as I can to give you the kind of pleasure I have always experienced. There are two reasons why some posts are restricted to ‘Members Only’.
The first reason is that the content is controversial or explicit. It helps to have that extra step in place, where you clearly agree to view explicit content, rather than it just showing up on your phone or computer (or your kids).
The second reason is that some of the girls that I have shot with have families, friends or careers, and want to limit exposure of nude or erotic material so that it is not public. I ask you to respect that. Any ‘Members Only’ post is for your personal viewing, and must not be shared anywhere. Any breach of this trust means that I will not be able to post exclusive private content. Thanks for your understanding.
If you have ANY questions, either leave a comment below, or contact me directly here.
I love to see your comments on posts, and am always happy to respond to any requests or questions.
– James