I just discovered the work of English portrait photographer Madame Yevonde today, and I wish I had done so earlier! These images are from her Goddesses series. This was inspired by a costume party she attended where guests dressed as Roman and Greek gods and goddesses. The woman in the last picture is Diana Guinness of the Mitford family, who went on to marry Oswald Mosley. Yevonde's work did much to boost the reputation of colour photography which was not popular in the 1930s.
Madame Yevonde was a Suffragette in her youth, and I think her feminist leanings show in these images. She presents women as beautiful, otherworldly and possessing a kind of esoteric power. They appear to be lost in their own legend, with the exeption of Medusa who fixes the viewer with that deadly stare.
No comments:
Post a Comment