You might find this post a little off the deep end, but please allow me to go to the edge of where ya'll might be willing to go with me.
In my travels as a photographer, my eye has been drawn to the many women – virtual and actual – on display behind glass. Stronger than any actual link I might intellectually set up here, the reoccurring motif that I will call a "visual rhyme" – has continued to stick in my head. The photographic argument I make here through my camera may raise a lot of hackles, but it's a connection I won't lie about having made. Visually, it's quite compelling. What other links are there to be made, namely between what I posted about before – woman as consumers of the very things that make them objects of visual and sexual consumption. 32
Has The Metropolitician finally gone over the deep end? Am I just an mercilessly cynical bastard? I don't happen to think so, as I'm actually a pretty light-hearted guy. And when I took these pictures, I wasn't really thinking in terms of the meta-argument, in terms of this particular photo essay and the pictures I was going to place in them.
In general, my decision to take these pictures was made mostly in response to the common emotion I felt when confronted with each window: a kind of creepy revulsion, a sort of palpable and extreme unease. I never liked mannequins – they've always creeped me out. But when fully posed, dressed, and placed on display, I've never liked looking at them much. I had the same feeling when faced with the humans in the 4th picture, since you have the mannequin creepiness combined with the fact that you're staring at real people and you kind of feel guilty for that staring.
Overall, what do you think about this visual argument? Comments, please?
"Femme Fatales"
"Fetish for All Ages"
"My Very First"
"Women in Waiting"
"The Final Costume"
