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| Gordon Parks Gowns by Jacques Fath, Paris 1951 gelatin silver print Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Éditions Paul-Martial (Paris) Model in Three-Piece Suit ca. 1939 gelatin silver print Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum, Basel |
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| Athol Shmith Gown of the Year 1958 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Man Ray Barbette Dressing 1926 gelatin silver print (commissioned by Jean Cocteau) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Berenice Abbott Coco Chanel ca. 1927 gelatin silver print Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts |
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| Berenice Abbott Margarett Sargent McKean ca. 1928 gelatin silver print Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts |
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| George Hoyningen-Huene Horst 1931 gelatin silver print (swimwear modeled by future fashion photographer) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Daniel Jocz Candy-Wear Jewelry 1999 photocopied fashion photograph with paper collage Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Philippe Halsman Swedish Model ca. 1965-70 gelatin silver print Brooklyn Museum |
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| Yousuf Karsh Moira Shearer 1959 gelatin silver print Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh |
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| attributed to Ilse Bing Fashion Model ca. 1940 gelatin silver print Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Ruth Bernhard Draped Model with Pins 1930 gelatin silver print Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Louise Dahl-Wolfe Model in Schiaparelli Tunic Dress with Brancusi Sculptures 1938 gelatin silver print Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Louise Dahl-Wolfe Model in Corset 1950 gelatin silver print Yale University Art Gallery |
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| John Swannell Fashion Designer Jean Muir with Model ca. 1985 gelatin silver print Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh |
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| Edward Steichen Beatrice Lillie wearing Roller Skates ca. 1926-31 gelatin silver print Princeton University Art Museum |
Through Binoculars
In their congealed light
We discover that what we had taken for a face
Has neither eyes nor mouth,
But only the impersonality of anatomy.
Has neither eyes nor mouth,
But only the impersonality of anatomy.
Silencing movement,
They withdraw life.
They withdraw life.
Definition grows clear-cut, but bodiless,
Withering by a dimension.
Withering by a dimension.
To see thus
Is to ignore the revenge of light on shadow,
To confound both in a brittle and false union.
This fictive extension into madness
Has a kind of bracing effect:
Has a kind of bracing effect:
That normality is, after all, desirable
One can no longer doubt having experienced its opposite.
One can no longer doubt having experienced its opposite.
Binoculars are the last phase in a romanticism:
The starkly mad vision, not mortal,
The starkly mad vision, not mortal,
But dangling one in a vicarious, momentary idiocy.
To dispense with them
Is to make audible the steady roar of evening,
Withdrawing in slow ripples of orange,
Is to make audible the steady roar of evening,
Withdrawing in slow ripples of orange,
Like the retreat of water from sea-caves.
– Charles Tomlinson (1955)