Tag: garters

Author unknown – Title Unknown (192X?)

Things I like about this:

1. The corner of the room behind the divan at the left edge of the frame;
2. The wallpaper,
3. The way genitals in encircled by open mouth a smidgen north of the exact center of the frame;
4. The garter with white bow relieving the black stocking of weight that would’ve otherwise unbalanced the composition;
5. The way she’s looking at the camera;
6. The eye moves over this in a very interesting fashion–left to right (taking in the tableau), upon reaching the right edge, there is a much more forcible momentum right to left–the backward trajectory reinforces the joining of bodies and then the angle of her hear and the downward jutting of her right arm creates this whipping loop where the viewer’s gaze cycles counter clockwise from arm, through rump, through the nexus of connection again and again.
7. Zoom in close and you’ll see that the sort of silver highlights throughout the image are actually a result of where fingers pressed into the emulsion leaving the oily residue of fingerprint.

Lastly, a counterpoint on the why the eye parses this frame: there is no sense that there is a continuity beyond the edge of the frame, thus the exclusion of the woman on the left’s right forearm and hand represents an amputation, a symbolical removal of autonomous agency. (Her foot is similarly maimed.) No matter the cleverness of the way the work cycles the gaze–these women are definitely meant to perform for the male gaze.)