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In early 1970, photographer Victor Skrebneski accepted yet another assignment. His elegant minimalist portraits of nude models and celebrities, often surrounded by ample swaths of black space, had made his work somewhat ubiquitous. And so Venture magazine, a long-gone national lifestyle publication, hired him to shoot the Culture Makers of Chicago. This is that photo. Michael Kutza, founder of the Chicago International Film Festival, keeps a copy in his office (he’s the brooding guy in a turtleneck on the right). Skrebneski, 84, doesn’t remember much about the session. The magazine picked the subjects, he said. And he can’t recall why burlesque dancer Sally Rand is even there. But he does remember everyone arrived on time (except theater producer Michael Butler, in the ascot), and there was lots of money in the room.

cborrelli@tribune.com

The subjects

(posed in alphabetical order), from left:

Robert Adams, director, Hull House Association.

Michael Butler, theater producer, “Hair.”

Paul Carroll, poet.

John Edwards, general manager, Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Charles Cunningham, director, Art Institute of Chicago.

Marshall Field (V), philanthropist.

Bertrand Goldberg, architect.

Hugh Hefner, founder, Playboy.

Richard Hunt, sculptor.

John Johnson, publisher, Ebony, Jet.

Irv Kupcinet, Chicago Sun-Times columnist.

Michael Kutza, founder, Chicago International Film Festival

Sally Rand, burlesque dancer.

Joseph R. Shapiro, founder, Museum of Contemporary Art.

Harry Mark Petrakis, novelist.

Karl Wirsum, artist, the Hairy Who collective.