Holiday (Window) Dress(ing)
December 1, 2011
Since I didn’t find any holiday images I liked Sunday, for this Saturday’s photography meetup I chose three photos I’d taken the day before on my way home from farmers market. These are the same mannequins I’d photographed the year before. Wonder how they will look next year. . . . What I find fascinating is how dead the gaze is. What makes a human face look alive, even when Photoshopped to smithereens? Such overprocessed photographs are said to make the person look like a Barbie doll, but still, you know the person is alive amid all that fake perfection. . . . Funny: I Photoshopped the mannequin photos to make them look more human (changed the skin tone, added “fingernail polish,” and eliminated lines indicating where the parts are screwed together). . . . The first three photos are the ones for the meetup. The rest are the photos I took last year. . . . Thanks to Steve Stennes for suggesting improvements to the third photograph.
Romancing Reality 
These images are haunting. Great composition and the enhancements you mention are not obvious unless you think about what a mannequin *should* look like. These are just a little too realistic–so unsettling. Could be commentary on false holiday “cheer,” though I don’t think that is your point. Well done!
LikeLike
December 2, 2011 at 9:17 AM
You’re right, Tamara. I wasn’t commenting on false holiday cheer, but I don’t mind if some people interpret the photographs that way. Partly I think I’m asking What makes us human? And partly I’m just enjoying photographing humanlike forms that can hold still for a very long time. Then there’s the hidden girlie part of me that enjoys glitz and glamor. You describe the images as “haunting.” I say “mysterious”—close to the same meaning. I like that they seem neither human nor fake. I do see a narrative aspect to the third photograph: A mannequin wishing to escape her frozen existence and go for a ride in a convertible with the top down. By the way, the French use the word “mannequin” to refer to a model, so take “mannequin” as far into metaphor as you like.
LikeLike
December 2, 2011 at 12:35 PM