How Glamour Photography Brought A Video Game To Life

There are certain industries that owe a considerable amount of their success and mainstream attention to the world of glamour photography, but whilst fashion, fragrance and nightwear are generally expected to have products showcased by glamour models, other markets are a bit more unusual.

Probably one of the most fascinating cases of glamour models becoming the core part of a product’s success is the story of the video game series Tomb Raider.

Whilst glamour models have been a part of video game marketing since the 1986 release of Twister: Mother of Charlotte, and well-known models have promoted games such as Last Bronx and Battlecruiser 3000AD, Tomb Raider’s glamour photography marketing was the first major success of the concept.

Given that the main selling point of 1996’s original Tomb Raider game was its main character Lara Croft, it made sense for publisher Eidos Interactive to hire glamour models to dress as her for industry events.

Originally, they hired four separate models for convenience, but even they were surprised by the huge crowd that surrounded the models, and that led to the decision that would make the campaign famous.

Instead of hiring multiple models to dress up as the character, they would have a single official Lara Croft who would appear for all trade and publicity duties and effectively act as if she actually was the character.

The first of these was Natalie Cook, who was one of the four original trade show models along with a pre-fame Katie “Jordan” Price, but was later chosen to represent her full-time, appearing in advertising and at launch events in different locations.

After she left the role, she was replaced by Rhona Mitra and Vanessa Demouy, with the latter becoming the face of the character in France.

Following this was the glamour model Nell McAndrew, who had already appeared on ITV’s Man O Man and in the Daily Star, but her stint as Lara Croft made her a household name, even if it rather infamously ended due to a Playboy shoot that alluded to her role as the character.

In total, eight models portrayed Lara Croft between 1996 and 2008, before the video game series was placed on hiatus in 2008.