I’ve posted several blogs in the last few years featuring images I’ve taken of mannequins. I’ve been drawn to photographing mannequins for a number of reasons. In terms of representation I like the ambiguity; a human, yet not a human. I like the fact they can range from quasi-lifelike to grotesque and non-naturalistic. I like that I can stare at them without being rude, and I love fashion. In terms of art and photo history I’ve always liked Eugene Atget’s photographs of Parisian store fronts taken in the mid 1920s. Surrealist artists including Man Ray were also inspired by mannequins; I found Surrealism as a genre to be very exciting when I discovered it as a teenager and decades later it still appeals. I think I may have a surrealist take on the representation of human form in street photography, connected to the concept behind Magritte’s painting Ceci n’est pas Une Pipe also known as The Treachery of Images. In this work Magritte painted a smoker’s pipe, and additionally painted the French words for this is not a pipe beneath the image. Human form regardless of whether it is an animate or inanimate human being, is still a representation of a person. Advocates of what is referred to as candid street photography will probably not agree with my take on this.
Doing some research on the history of mannequins in street photography I only just came across Lee Friedlander’s shots of mannequins. I was struck by the similarity with some of my own work, especially my mannequin tree goddesses and the mannequin/reflection combinations that feature architectural facades. So here are a number of recent pieces taken in the past year taken on my travels and at home:
A couple of Venetian illusions:
Tree Goddess/Dominatrix
Elegant in New Orleans:
Ibiza Town:
Oversized eyes in Bologna:
Also in Bologna, a graduation student walks past holding a decorated mannequin leg:
A couple from New York:
I like the way the light falls on this mannequin’s face, seen on the Lower East Side:
A child mannequin in Porto – for my previous series on child mannequins click here:
