| Intl. Notebook | May 6 2016 |
French photographer earns raves for fresh look at the nude form... except for one little thing.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to be impressed by those who do. Especially when it comes to art. The very nice image above was shot by Parisian photographer Dani Olivier. He has published three photo books, exhibited his pieces all over France, as well as in galleries in such places as Kiev, Moscow, and Los Angeles, and describes his work as an effort to create nude portraits “that [haven't] been shot before.” Ah, but they have been shot before, Dani, they surely have, and by one of your countrymen, no less—Fernand Fonssagrives, as we discussed here.
The photo we posted back in 2012 was one from the Fonssagrives canon that had never been seen online before, which makes it worth a gander, but for those disinclined to click over there, an example of Fonssagrives' work from 1956 appears below. Very similar, no? We have a feeling Olivier would exclaim, “But Fonssagrives' light is dots, while mine is sperm, you idiot!” Well, dots, sperm—maybe Fonssagrives' is sperm too, but seen head-on.
There's no doubting Olivier's light patterns are more varied and detailed, however Fonssagrives might have gone in a similarly precise direction had he possessed similarly superior projection technology. In any case, we love Dani Olivier’s work. But the quote about its originality caught our eye, as well as the fact that none of the articles we checked on him mentioned Fonssagrives, so we were pretty much compelled to bring up the old master, who certainly deserves his just due.
| Vintage Pulp | Nov 10 2012 |
Whatever it is that girl put a spell on me.
The editors of the Goodtime Weekly Calendar of 1963 have yanked themselves back from the brink. Last week their misogyny had reached an extent that made their ruminations unpublishable, but this week, suddenly, they’re back to normal—i.e. teasing but not mean-spirited. Where did the malice come from? We have no idea. Maybe some men are so used to retaining control over every aspect of their lives that the freaky power women have to make them lose their equilibrium spawns a simmering hostility. But sexual power is really the point of life, isn’t it? We act like we’re firmly anchored, but in reality we’re emotionally designed to slip our moorings the moment the right person happens along. That’s the fun of living. Lust, fear, risk, reward, failure, sex, heartbreak, love—all pieces of the same lovely puzzle. You gotta embrace it. Insults say nothing about the group we insult, and everything about us.
Well, at least Fernand Fonssagrives understood all this. He’s the creator of the image above, as well as one we uploaded in July. Way back in the 1930s his wife Lisa gave him a camera and he began shooting photos with her as his model. He eventually became the highest paid fashion photographer in New York City, while his wife became the world’s first supermodel. The model here is not Lisa Fonssagrives—she would have been in her fifties by then. There’s no model info in the Goodtime Calendar, so we’ll probably never know who posed for this shot. But she’s certainly a beauty. The session really sucked for the bear, though. The week’s observations are below.
Nov 10: “A penny for your thoughts is still about the right price.”—Bob Hope
Nov 11: “A dark corner is where some men get bright ideas.”—Freddie Flintstone
Nov 12: Gossip: What no one claims to like but everyone enjoys.
Nov 13: Women’s intuition is the ability to read between men’s lyings.
Nov 14: “Woman’s dearest delight is to wound man’s self-conceit, though man’s dearest delight is to gratify hers.”—George Bernard Shaw
Nov 15: “Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit.”—William Shakespeare
Nov 16: “A friend of mine always buys from relatives: He says, ‘It’s cheaper by the cousins.’”—Paul Fogarty
Goodtime Weekly CalendarBob HopeLisa FonssagrivesFernand FonssagrivesFreddie FlintstoneGeorge Bernard ShawWilliam ShakespearePaul Fogarty
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 21 2012 |
You better check yourself.
Above, the Goodtime Weekly Calendar of 1963 for the week beginning July 21 with an image by Fernand Fonssagrives, a French photographer who published in Harper’s Bazaar and other magazines, and later made images of nudes with light patterns on their skin a trademark style. He was also married to Lisa Fonssagrives, who many think of as the first supermodel. See a few more Fonssagrives images here.
July 21: A smart wife has the steak on when her husband returns from his fishing trip.
July 22: I asked a beautiful girl, “Are you a model?” She said, “No, I’m full scale.”—Harrison Baker
July 23: “Women used to get undressed for the beach; now they do it to go to the supermarket.”—He-who Who-he
July 24: Figures come all sorts and shapes, but some come too big for short shorts.
July 25: “Do you know what keep me humble? Mirrors!”—Phyllis Diller
July 26: “Plenty of girls at a resort hotel are looking for husbands… and plenty of husbands are looking for girls.”—Sig Sakowicz
July 27: “A lot of women in the summer nowadays are just a bunch of stuffed shorts.”—Rod Brasfield
Goodtime Weekly CalendarFernand FonssagrivesHarrison BakerPhyllis DillerSig SakowiczRod BrasfieldLisa Fonssagrives
