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Opinionopinion

Poster girl for an age of subtlety lost on a shameless generation

Photographer Martin Elliot's picture of his girlfriend Fiona in tennis gear has effortlessly transcended time and fashion.

Fiona Walker, the woman in the famous Athena poster(Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

It’s the Birmingham poster which inspired millions of teenage male fantasies, a racy stroke of genius which has become as much a part of º£½ÇÊÓÆµ culture as that long, hot summer of 1976 when it was first taken, the flying pickets, punk rock and the flares.

It’s often said that the 70s were the decade that style forgot, and that may very well be the case when we consider the clothes, Johnny Rotten, his ghastly sidekick Sid Vicious, and the mullets, but photographer Martin Elliot’s picture of his girlfriend Fiona in tennis gear has effortlessly transcended time and fashion.

The famous photograph snapped on a Birmingham University tennis court went on to become the biggest selling poster image of all time, shifting over two million copies worldwide.

The sales figures speak for themselves. The shot of the tennis girl from Birmingham is right up there with photographic images of all the greats across a span of cultures, from JFK to Martin Luther King, Jagger to Lennon, David Bailey to Annie Leibovitz.

For as long as teenage boys have fantasies, Fiona Butler’s rear will be up there with the likes of Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe. They may be more famous, but Fiona and her backside sold more posters, so Martin Eliot must have struck a chord or two with his Edgbaston handiwork back in 76.

With the poster back in the news now that the original dress and racquet are being sold at auction by Stourbridge auctioneers Fieldings, it’s timely to consider why the Tennis Girl has lasted so long, why millions handed over hard-earned cash to buy a copy.

I’m neither a tennis fan nor an expert in photography, but it seems to me that Martin Elliot’s image has stood the test of time largely because it appeals to the imagination as much as anything else. It’s suggestive but not explicit, conceals more than it reveals and we never get to see the girl’s face, ensuring an air of mystery. But it’s moot to consider whether Fiona Butler’s rear view would have endured as long if the photograph had been taken in 2014.

The Swinging Sixties had given us Oh Calcutta!, so-called free love and the pill, while the 70s came up with Carry On films, Jackie Collins, Harold Robbins and all the rest. But it’s all pretty tame compared to today’s minefield of explicit sexual imagery and internet porn.