Two nude women are aligned head to toe on a field of pale blue. Their legs are bent at right angles, cradling each other’s heads behind their knees.
Their hips are snug into one another’s shoulder blades. Straight arms, connecting shoulder to shoulder, emphasize the rotational symmetry and alignment of the figures.
Composition
The viewpoint is overhead of two bodies on their side. They lie back-to-back, spines and arms aligned. One head is positioned at the top of the composition and the other is oriented upside down. One face is in a three quarter view, with both eyes open, looking up. The other is in profile, eyes shut, oriented downward.
The caramel and peach-toned bodies stand out against the robin’s egg background. The textures of their skin and hair contrast with the featureless border of negative space surrounding them. A blue flower on each woman’s ear visually ties the background to the shallow foreground.
Strong lines emphasize the vertical orientation of this artwork. The two women’s arms, and the shadows surrounding them, form the core of the repeated vertical lines and shapes in the image.
Theme
Though the two women are similar in many ways, their integration represents complementary energies. Their interplay shows both harmony and opposition. The design invokes the notion of a cycle or perpetual repetition where one element leads to the other. They are independent entities that seem inseparable. At its most basic level, this scene explores the concept of relationship, in the most general meaning of the term.
Although depicting two women in the nude, the composition is only remotely sensual; they contact each other on the shoulder and face away from one another. The nude aesthetic of this photograph is delicate, relying on the presentation of the visual elements rather than the context of the nude body.
