Tuesday, March 29, 2011

IN MY MANTELPIECE / EN MI TOCADOR

Finally. I have this cheap print treasured in a very expensive frame. I first came across this image a few years back, when looking through an old Paris Photo catalogue. Its form, composition and light soon struck me, and I could not stop studying its avant-garde movement and morbid sensuality over and over again. I had to have it.

This somehow tragic scene was performed for Koppitz's camera by four dancers-performers of the Vienna State Opera, and it wonderfully takes me to the golden twenties of the art deco, the Gatsby, the silent films and the jazz.

Bewegungsstudie ('Movement Study) by Rudolf Koppitz, 1925.

Por fín. Tengo mi copia fotográfica barata atesorada dentro de un marco carísimo. La descubrí hace ya unos años en un viejo catálogo del Paris Photo. Su forma, composición y luz me cautivaron por completo, y me hicieron estudiar una y otra vez su movimiento y sensualidad morbosa. Tenía que poseerla.

De tragedia aparente, esta escena la realizaron cuatro bailarinas de la Opera Vienesa para la cámara de Koppitz, y me transporta maravillosamente a los dorados años veinte, con su art deco, su Gatsby, su cine mudo y su jazz.