A whimsical take on pinup nude photography, this original art photograph depicts a female figure as seen from overhead. She lays on her back, looking up with a pleasant, far-away expression. On her abdomen is a Movieflex motion picture camera, encased in seven liters of lemon gelatin. The floor harkens back decades, as does the home movie camera.
This bizarre combination of a vintage German movie camera, a woman in a pinup pose, a chilled dessert, and a backdrop of gaudy vinyl flooring leaves us to ponder a variety of absurd mysteries. Why is the camera in the gelatin; is it a themed treat for a party? Is the figure intended as a serving platter, perhaps an ironic send-up of the pinup genre? If this is so well choreographed, where is the table? Or did she slip on the slick floor while taking the treat to the couch and land in this pose, expressing delight at the absurdity of the event? Perhaps we’ll never know, as she has yet to respond to our hand-written letters requesting the full explanation.
Her pose is fixed and symmetrical, imparting an odd mannequin-like look.
This peculiar visual story is told from a perspective of being directly overhead and looking straight down. Looking straight down at the floor is an immediately obvious distinction. In addition to the visual novelty, this angle of view has the narrative effect of showing us the entire scene of the woman and her immediate surroundings. The lack of depth at this point of view limits our knowledge of her surroundings. This takes away any context of whether she is in a domestic kitchen, a diner, or a shop.
The color palette of this composition is heavily dominated by warm tones of orange, tan, and brown. The lightest and brights of these colors include her golden hair, and the yellow gelatin. The darkest tones include the shadows around her figure and the grout lines in the vinyl floor pattern. The nostalgic patterns and colors place the time period of the image decades into the past.
The protagonist’s figure is angled diagonally across the frame. Her feet are extended, toes pointed, emphasizing her outstretched legs.
