I’m ‘legging it’ to see Bourdin…
A recent exhibition I visited was Guy Bourdin Image Maker at Somerset House it was my birthday so I thought why not? A favourite fashion photographer of mine for a long time he was relatively ‘unheard of’ just ‘known’ by those ‘in the know’ but when you look at his work you can clearly see his influence on the next generation of Fashion photographers. (Anyway I digress...) in the summer of 1979 Bourdin came to the UK for a tour, to do a series of fashion photo-shoots for Charles Jourdan shoes whose campaigns he has shot since 1967. But did he bring models? Well no he brought a pair of mannequin legs!
So dispensing with the flesh, he photographed the legs wearing the said shoes in a number of different locations. Waiting for a taxi or bus, sitting on a park bench & walking along ‘the promenade’ they were captured in a number of both amusing & sinister situations.. Pictured here are the legs x 2 sat having a ‘tête a tête’ ‘warming themselves’ in the guesthouse lounge, amusingly there are bananas on the mantelpiece, maybe a warning not to slip up? The next picture is those now ‘famous’ pins going for yes a promenade! in a wonderful pastiche of the British seaside. Bourdin certainly used humour as well as darkness in his imagery always tantalising you, there is a mystery, so you always ‘want more’ but will you ever get to the bottom of it?
The next image shows this dark edge with a model ‘posing as a mannequin’, the effect is rather disturbing, she looks lifeless more lifeless than a mannequin itself, which begs the question what is the difference? Both are objectified, but here he is commenting on ‘being the objectifier’ or is he?? with Bourdin you are literally ‘kept in the dark’… (he famously never gave any interviews – smart guy)…So how much has actually changed in Fashion Magazines imagery since the 1970’s? And where did my interest in Mannequins originate? From Fashion magazine’s, shop windows or watching Miss world on the telly as a child? Either way I love Bourdin’s take on this, by taking the legs for a tour, for a walk, for an adventure to escape…by removing the female form does he really remove objectification? What he does do is ‘turn it on its head as it were’, & its something I can certainly ‘run with for now’, time now for a nice cuppa & teacake to mull all this over…he’s certainly got me thinking…
All pictures are photographed from the exhibits when viewing the show