So as I’ve been wandering around in the night with my camera, a new obsession has supplanted my fascination with architecture: mannequins. I know that they’re supposed to be like the ultimate art-school cliche, but I don’t care. I love them. They’re representations of human beings at their most stylized.
My photography teacher (yes, I’ve been going to classes, because my digital skills are dismal – though not so much anymore!) commented that if you’re going to take a picture of someone else’s work of art, you can’t take it just head-on. You need to interact with it, show it from your unique point of view, to make it yours. So now I’m getting into snapping these super-pseudo people to catch the traces of humanity beyond the consumer products they’re hawking.
My first subjects? The models for high-end lingerie and peepshow booths – so ripe for comparison.
The window at La Perla. Their hair is short, dark, and stylish – these women are sophisticated and their sexuality so intense they have no need to stoop to long, blonde cliches. Originally I had a wider shot that showed more of what they’re wearing, but I wanted to concentrate on their expressions and postures, not the underwear. Gathered together, all looking outward, there’s definitely an air of conspiracy, made even more intriguing by doing it barely dressed. The window for women, who have lots of money and want to spend it on looking sexy.
Major contrast over at Excellent Video (such a quaintly 80’s name, le sigh). This is a front shot just to show the full face – note the messy hair, which is most definitely not erotically tousled, and the weird chop to the left side of her face. Most likely whoever changed her dress to the latest skimpy whatever was sloppy about putting her back together. The window for men, looking to hurriedly get off (there was a guy meandering around outside the store waiting for me to walk away before he furtively stepped through the doors. More quaintness – people still feeling
shame in our totally pornified culture.)
Two things: trying to get both her and the DVD sign in the background for some seedy context, and subtracting all the luridness. (It’s a pretty trashy nightie she’s got on.) I love the light on her face and the way she’s peeking out from behind her hair.
This one’s all about tension. Expensive clothing, but made uncomfortable by the rigid arms and legs, and then again by the bars over the window. No faces, anonymity for even more disquiet.
I need to find more places that are styling whole head-to-toe dummies, not just torsos – you can’t get anything out of a torso.
