Close Contact

Photographer Betina Du Toit shamelessly takes Playboy up close and personal.

This intimate pictorial appeared in our Spring 2026 issue—if you missed it, you can still access the entire issue as well as our complete archive dating back to 1953 here. Ready for the next one? It hits newsstands July 28.

“It’s always a dance between the subject and me.” For Close Contact, South African photographer Betina du Toit—based in New York and known for intimate, stripped-back imagery—trained her lens on model Julia Campbell-Gillies in a series of close-range images that isolate skin, faces, and bodies in quiet, sensory detail, successfully capturing what she calls “moments of sensuality, like snippets from a movie scene.”

SILLY RABBIT. Our mascot, in the most enviable of positions. H. Crowne’s Anomaly necklace ($222, hcrowne.com) features a detachable rabbit head pendant to fasten on a chain—or wherever else you might desire.

RED MEANS GO. From the lights to the lingerie, there’s only one color that’s guaranteed to set the mood.

PASSING GLANCE. To change your perspective or lift your spirits, sometimes all you need is a little peek.

SILENT TREATMENT. If some things are best left unsaid, others are best left undressed (or, at the very most, wrapped in a pair of fishnets).