Frank L. Collier

Frank L. Collier may have been a principal photographer for Art Kraft. Art Kraft operated their business using mailing addresses in Norfolk, Virginia (next door to Virginia Beach), and San Francisco, California. First orders were selected from a small booklet of “male nudes” which featured paintings, statues, sketches, and a few photographs of male posteriors. In subsequent orders, the small catalog featured paintings, statues, and nude photographs. As with Continental Studios below, it is possible that Art Kraft was another mail-drop entity operated by H. Lynn Womack.

Collier may also have operated as or through DeZign (Washington, DC). The studio sold catalogs and black and white photo sets by mail. According to its sales literature, “DeZign was originated to supply to artists, sculptors, doctors, teachers, and students ... and others who have a bona fide interest in nude photographs of the human body.” This is almost identical to the statement made by Continental Studio, later Continental Artists, a mail-drop known to be operated by H. Lynn Womack. Damon Zorich is listed as director on a sales flyer (possibly the “DZ” in DeZign; possibly a pseudonym). The company’s sales literature and release forms are very similar to those of Frank L. Collier, and DeZign distributed photos of many of the same models as Collier used.

According to a story in The Washington Post, Collier was indicted by a grand jury on 13 Jan 1960 on 18 counts of sending obscene pictures through the mail. He was residing in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the time of the indictment. It is notable that H. Lynn Womack was living in Virginia Beach at the same time and was himself arrested on similar charges for the operations of Continental Studios. In spring of 1962, Grecian Guild Press, another Womack entity, published Annual: F. L. Collier that included photographs of many of Collier’s models, this volume was later established as Grecian Guild Studio Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1.