Edward Weston | Cholula Costume, Circa 1926

Edward Weston | Cholula Costume, circa 1926

Catalogue Essay:

In 1923 at the urging of his friend Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey and their shared lover Tina Modotti, Edward Weston left his family and moved to Mexico where he embarked on a new chapter in his career that would prove influential in directing the course of his photography. Whereas his earlier portraits adhere to many of the classic characteristics of 19th century portraiture- stoic poses, elaborate costumes, accessories reflective of the sitter- his Mexican period, as seen in lots 254, 255 and 257, illustrates his interest in incorporating elements of Modernism and experimenting with alternate methods and approaches to portraiture. In his first portraits in Mexico, Weston abandoned the studio setting and photographed his sitters against the backdrop of an overcast sky. Tightly cropping the images so that their faces dominated the full frame and shooting from a lower vantage point, gave the sitters a weight and monumentality atypical of the classic portrait. Collectively, Weston had come to refer to that body of work as “heads.” The Mexican writer Francisco Monterde Garcia Icazbalceta perceptively described them as “guillotine heads in the noon sun: unreal necks and martyred eyes in harsh, insolent light.” (Conger, n.p. fig 110/1923) By isolating the head from all context, Weston was able to capture uniquely intimate moments, ones that speak to, not only the disposition of the sitters, but even more to Weston’s personal relationships with them. When Weston met Diego Rivera at his first exhibition in Mexico in the fall of 1923, Rivera quickly became a champion of his work, drawn to the Modernist elements echoed in his own works.The two became close friends and Weston would go on to photograph both Rivera and his wife Guadalupe Marin de Rivera during his two years in Mexico. In Diego Rivera, Mexico, 1924 (Lot 255) one can see the admiration and respect that Weston had for his new friend; that Rivera looks down upon Weston with a jovial expression and Weston, in turn, literally looks up to Rivera, suggests a rapport reminiscent of a mentor with his mentee. Similarly, in Guadalupe Marin de Rivera, 1923 (Lot 257) Weston captures her mid-speech with her mouth agape. From Weston’s own writings of Guadalupe, this is perhaps the most appropriate manner for him to depict her as he wrote of his affection for her “strong voice, almost course, dominating.” But neither of these “heads” are quite as revealing as Tina with Tear, 1923 (Lot 254), which shows Modotti with a tear rolling down her cheek. The act of photographing someone, by its very nature, is an intimate act, but to do as that someone expresses vulnerability supposes an undeniable trust between the photographer and sitter. While Weston’s nudes of Modotti are far more intimate in a literal way, their chief concern lies within the formal qualities of her body. Here, by contrast, the camera nearly becomes transparent as we see Modotti not through a lens but through the adoring eye of her lover. In as much as Weston’s “heads” demonstrate his fascination with contemporary icons of Mexican art, such as Rivera and his wife, he was equally interested in the greater history of Mexican culture. In Cholula Costume (lot 256), Weston portrays the dancer and choreographer Rosa Covarrubias in native Mexican attire. In 1930 Rosa married Miguel Covarrubias, the renowned Mexican ethnologist, art historian, painter, caricaturist, and set and costume designer. Rosa and Miguel were close friends of Weston and Modotti, who taught Rosa photography. What Weston captured in his lens is not merely the “woman of great beauty and charm” as described by José Limón in his biography, but also a model of traditional Mexican culture, one that was researched and consequently introduced by Rosa and her husband to create a new era in contemporary Mexican dance.

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Russian dress from Tver Region, Russia. XIX c.

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quiina

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ok i want to talk about billford for a second. there’s something to be said about it.

for the record NO i don’t ship it. but i do think i’d be missing out on crucial characterization if i didn’t bring this up, that in canon, it looks like ford has somewhat of a crush on bill by the way he talks about him in his journal and the memorabilia he collects (until he learns he was used to build a portal). crushes don’t have to be sexual NOR romantic in nature of course, they can be of a platonic type. wanting to get to know someone really deeply or spend a lot of time with them. ford obviously smitten with this knowledgeable omniscient dream creature. to ford bill felt more than just “a friend” but the feeling of was, of course, not mutual. bill played along and made him feel special so he could stick around to build that portal for him—the one he’s tried with like countless people throughout history. however i do think bill was surprised by ford’s competence which made him stick out more than the others to great surprise

i think this dynamic is interesting, but because it is unhealthy i don’t like saying i ship it. i don’t think this is a good relationship and almost all the content is not what i’m looking for when i want to see these two interacting. i don’t want to see them make out. i want to see how ford, for how smart he is, got so carried away by having his ego stroked by a little guy. i want to put him in a lab and study him. he literally just met this triangle by reciting transciptions from caveman art that told him not to read it aloud and somehow goes all in with his coins on bill and trusts him with his entire being despite just meeting him and the warnings written in the cave. and he is played like a fucking Sucker. i want to see what bill thinks from his point of view and what he did to keep milking the hell out of ford’s time, resources, and trust.

but i’m just. not a fan of how much emphasis is put on a sexual interpretation of the relationship in the fandom or the fact that the abusive aspects are brushed aside or romanticized which is why i don’t want to say “i’m a fan of this ship”.

you know how ao3 has “X / Y” to mean ship and “X & Y” to mean gen character relationship? i find the dynamic fascinating in the sense of the latter. i did see that ford wanted intimacy with bill because of his little fanboy crush but i dont believe it was literally sexual or romantic intimacy, it was psychological intimacy. bill isn’t a stone wall when it comes to this type of mental intimacy (in fact he loves pushing people’s psychological boundaries and making them uncomfortable a la eric andre) but he is deceptive of his true motives. as someone with a special interest in psychology it’s a fascinating dynamic to watch unfold from a detached perspective.

it feels like that episode of pretty good by jon bois where he talks about how he watches people playing poker because “it’s like watching someone else’s nightmare”. it’s a car crash waiting to happen watching this smart idiot betting it all in (his trust and psychological intimacy) and losing his sanity to a little triangle.

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quiina

1 year ago

She 🥺

Russian Folk Costume

Sergey Glebushkin Private Collection

Aldis

Massimiliano Piretti Editore, Bologna 2017, 183 pagine

euro 68,00*

orders to: booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

twitter: @fashionbooksmi

flickr: fashionbooksmilano

instagram: fashionbooksmilano

tumblr: fashionbooksmilano

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quiina

1 year ago

THE ENTIRE TIME

I WATCHED GRAVITY FALLS

MY FATHER

THOUGHT BILL CIPHER

WAS A FUCKING

CHEESE WEDGE

UNIRONICALLY

HE THOUGHT BILL CIPHER WAS A

WEDGE OF CHEESE

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quiina

1 year ago

One of Michoacán’s most well known folk arts. Photo taken in 2019 and sorry, none in stock! (at Urapan Michoacan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLpoFbXldWo/?igshid=1b1vlo8srqpan

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quiina

9 months ago

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quiina

1 year ago

NONE OF YOUR FREAKING MOVIES GET IT RIGHT: a guide to Russian names.

This post was inspired by years and years of watching movies, series, and fanfics royally and hilariously fuck up the use of names in the Russian language, coming to the point where, if I see another pair of best buddies call each other by full name, I will shoot something, I swear to God.

There are 3 ways people in Russia address each other, and they denote different levels of formality, and the relationship between the speakers. You should know this stuff if you wanna write anything that includes Russian people talking to each other, because if you get it wrong, it will be, alternatively, hilarious or cringe-worthy. I have seen soo much of this in fanfic it’s not funny anymore. So read up y'all!

1. Name + Patronymic.

A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a surname based on the given name of one’s father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. (thank you, Wikipedia!) A patronymic is not a middle name. Russian people don’t have middle names, period. But we all have patronymics!

Use: formal

Used towards: your teacher, your big boss, a senior citizen with whom you don’t have a close relationship (say, your classmate’s grandma), your doctor, any kind of professor or scholar when you address them formally, a client when you’re in the service industry/work with people (not always, but very often).

Example: Ivan Petrovich, Sergey Vladimirovich, Anna Anatolyevna, Maria Sergeevna, etc

Seguir leyendo

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