Issue No. 7 — selectedpictures

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Delegate, Democratic Convention, 1948

Modele de femme en italienne

Woman with Veil

Une girl anglaise dans sa loge, aux Folies-Bergère

Untitled (Ingrid Bergman and Selena Royle in “Joan of Arc”)

Two British Ladies

American Woman #3

Marilyn Monroe Rehearsing Scene for "The Misfits"

5th Avenue and 54th Street, NYC, October 1961

Final Assembly of Montgomery Ward Vacuum Cleaners

AT&T Phone Operator with Headset

Rama Tahe dans "Miarka la fille a l’ourse”

Synchronized Swimming

Nude

Eleanor, Port Huron, MI

Tropic Flower (Hollywood) / Portrait of Elizabeth Wilbur

Standing Nude

Margo

ISSUE # 7: THIRTY-SEVEN WOMEN

Thirty-seven women, maybe more – count ‘em.

Though they are both are standing at lecterns, the first two women (No.’s 1 and 2) have nothing in common and lived nearly a century apart. The vintage salt print photograph of a French model costumed as a voluptuous Italian peasant was created at the dawn of photography itself, in 1853. Its purpose was to provide an engraver with an image from which an etching could be made. The idea of a photograph having any inherent value as art was yet to come.

Like the French model, No.'s 3 and 5 are wearing improvised headdresses. The first is an artfully arranged napkin, the second is a suggestive tent of black lace and the third is a scary beauty-industry hat. Six women (No.’s 4, 5, and 6) seem to to be keen on grooming each other – a recurring theme in selectedpicture’s collection. Remember this? - that makes eight.

No. 7 (woman in green coat) and No. 8 (Marilyn Monroe) are alike only in that they are both walking from left to right. In No. 9, at least nine women are walking up, down, and around NYC's Fitfth Avenue at Fifty-fourth Street [the central figure appears to hail from another world, in another era, in another universe.] At least eight women are seen working on the assembly line at the Montgomery Ward Brand vacuum cleaner assembly line (No.10,) all of them in Chicago at the same time. No.11 has a job too, though her head is completely disembodied.

No. 12, Rama Tahe, an enormously popular film star in Europe during the 1930’s appeared in what are now recognized as exploitation movies. The “untamed” culture of the gypsies was used to rationalize her skimpy costumes and dirty dancing on-screen. Less is known about her character’s relationship with the bear, at left in foreground.

Annie Liebowitz's “Synchronized Swimmers” (No. 13) was last seen in Issue #3 and has been tossed in as a segue to the three nudes that follow. Also recycled from Issue #3 is an androgynous image of actress Elizabeth Wilbur “Tropic Flower, Hollywood” (No.16.,) offering another opportunity to study the excellent tonal work of Sherril Schell (an architectural photographer whose fascination with and intimate portraits of the English poet Rupert Brooke created a minor scandal in London twenty years earlier.) As might be expected, he fled to L.A.

There are two nudes (No.'s 14 and 17) by the underrated, and almost forgotten photographer Samuel Bernard Schaeffer. The 35 mm. contact print (No. 17) is one of more than 60 photos shot in a private home. The models have a natural, candid air but also appear to be sleepless and edgy in the glare of Schaeffer's harsh lighting.

No. 18 is a study of Mexican actress Margo (Mrs. Eddie Albert) and is embraced here for her beauty, much like No.15, Eleanor (Mrs. Harry Callahan.)

Please note that the oldest photograph (No. 2) is one hundred-sixty-three years old and the newest (No. 8) was shot forty-seven years ago. The website's collection is twelve years old and and the website itself began about two years ago. This is Issue #7.