Do you?

What to make of this editorial, shot by Torbjørn Rødland for the FW 13 edition of Double magazine? What is going on? What makes the pictures so disturbing? Sure, there are the creepy bodybuilders, the children, the childlike women, the strange setting, the voyeuristic men and their cameras and the strange imbalance of power between the characters. Well, you tell me, I just know that the pictures stopped me in my tracks, if only because they show something unusual and noncompliant.
(Note: The three “lying” pictures are supposed to be like that and weren’t accidentally posted in the wrong format.)

             © Double magazine

Double No.26 FW 13.14
Torbjørn Rødland: Interpretive Studies
Styling: Émelie Kareh
Featuring: Avery Tharp, Julia B, Brian Redmon, Nicholas Valesco, Denise Schaefer, Ian Roberts, Bill McAleenan, Julia Skova, and Roger Browne

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White Women, Black Hairstyles.

During a residency at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, New York, the artist Endia Beal took a group of middle-aged white women to a black hair salon. There, they were given a hairstyle typically seen on black women. After being styled, the women were photographed in a traditional corporate portrait.
The idea for this project came to Beal when she was working in a computer lab at Yale. Sporting a large red afro herself, she heard that many men in the office wanted to touch her hair. Her art project originates from this experience and wants to open discussion about different race, gender and generations. Beal raises questions about how we see ourselves, especially in the corporate world, as the ideal corporate appearance remains, in most cases and even for white women, the white male with his power suits.
For this series, she specifically wanted to work with women at least in their 40s: “I wanted people that had a certain idea of what you’re supposed to look like in the workspace, because it would be a challenge for them to understand what I experienced in that space,” she said. “ And to a degree, many young white women have shared that experience, but for older white women it’s an experience they haven’t necessarily had.” She added that the project is all about taking a risk, stepping out of your comfort zone, and trying out a new experience. Besides the physical opposition between a white woman and her black hair, the most compelling aspect of this work are all of the complicated histories, assumptions, silences and transformations that make the viewer see this issue as a discrepancy in the first place.

Ann Beth Charlotte Christina Christine Ellen Lynn ©Endia Beal

Hair-raising.

The Ardorous is an online art platform showcasing feminist projects of female creative professionals curated by Petra Collins. Arvida Bystrom is one of the artists featured on the site; her photo series “Lolita” show young girls portrayed in the usual dreamy fetishizing manner very often found in fashion magazines and as described by Nabokov himself in his eponymous novel. Bystrom’s pictures have a subversive quality in the undesired and unsightly body hair that hasn’t been shaved as is usually the expected norm.
©Arvida Bystrom

I wish you were here (summer).

For my first personal style post in ages I chose an outfit I actually wore quite a while back: a crisp white shirt with a bright orange swingy skirt and cobalt blue sandals.
I wish I could still run around like that! Unfortunately, fall is not approaching; it has already come – to stay. So no more open-toed shoes, short-sleeved blouses and tights-less anything. Oh well, at least I don’t have to keep up with immaculate pedicures and perfectly shaved legs for the next couple of months.

  Shirt: Cos, skirt: American Apparel, shoes: Zara, glasses: vintage, rings: &other stories, Topshop, H&M

Ease.

Just beautiful, beautiful pictures:
Model Julia Nobis and her brothers, four-year-old Luka and Raphael, photographed by Stephen Ward at the Hillsdale Orange Orchard in Bulga, New South Wales for the October 2013 issue of Vogue Australia.

© Vogue Australia

I want to be a Pom, too.

Sun City, Arizona, is a town near Phoenix with a population of over 37,000 retired residents all living there. The community is renowned for being a senior citizens’ paradise. When London-based photographer Todd Antony recently visited the town, he met ‘The Sun City Poms’, the town’s cheerleading squad. They formed in 1979, recruiting 55-year-olds (and older!) to support the Sun City Saints women’s softball team. Today, the group entertains at around 50 shows per year.
Antony says on his blog: “While I was [in Sun City] I couldn’t help but think that with the American obsession for child beauty pageants, you have one age group of society trying to grow up way too fast, while at the other end of the age scale another group strives to hold back the years in some way. And does a pretty damn good job of it really.”
The Poms say of themselves that they represent the fulfillment of life at any age. They add: “Performing with spunk and energy of their youths, these ladies share positive aspects of retirement and aging, and shatter conventional images of “senior citizens.”
What I love about the women in the pictures are the grace, beauty and great sense of pride and energy they exude.

Greta Lois Shirley The group TommieAll images ©Todd Antony

Yep, even there.

Last week, I was asked by the people of the Frankfurt Book Fair (who happens to be the world’s largest) to take pictures of stylish visitors and exhibitors for their lookblog tumblr. Great! I thought. But wait a minute… Are there even stylish people at a book fair? It’s not NYFW, after all, where you stumble over fashionistas, whether you like it or not. And indeed, it wasn’t easy to find the handful of people who weren’t clad in shapeless jeans, t-shirts and “reasonable” shoes. But I did find some beautiful women and men with a great sense of personal style, after all. So, this is what I have been up to in the last couple of days. You can find all pictures here, and below some of my personal favorites.