In 1937, the painters Jared French (1902-1989), Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) and Margaret French (1906-1998) began to experiment with a camera during summers on the beaches of Fire Island and Provincetown, and in the winters back at their New York City studios. Their subjects included friends and family, but primarily they studied each other through the camera’s eye over a period of twenty years. They collected these photographs, saved them in albums, and distributed them to lovers and friends. No great care was taken in their printing, or in their preservation until the 1980s. Taken anonymously, the acronym PAJAMA (PAul, JAred, MArgaret) signifies the works' collective authorship.