The Portrait of a Young Woman
There is something about your gaze
Your direct gaze
Confrontational
As if accusing the one held in your gaze
This gaze was not for women
Not so long ago
We were told to drop our eyes
In submission
You hold a mask
Perhaps the makeup mask
You apply
Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face
Or is it a mask for another
For a party or a ball
The night is dark
You a reverse shadow
Your gaze holds my own
April 7, 2018
Camera FLASH! ~ The April Edition
It is time to strike a pose again. Here is your photographic challenge for the April 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge. In honour of this occasion, I am featuring two portrait shots. Please feel free to use one now and one later in the month, when the muse has been exhausted.
Adolph de Meyer (1927) Advertisement for Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics, Fair Use
10 comments:
She is a mystery isn't she. I like the way you have described her gaze and your questioning. I especially like your line
"Don’t be caught dead Wearing your own face" How many women still fear this? Hopefully not us :-)
Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face...
Very insightful description of this portrait of so-called beauty.
Such a striking portrait. Such a strikingly odd advertisement. And it has a very particular effect, even for as straightforward and "in your face" - but there is something so subtle and complex about it too. And it's a subterfuge-energy - directed/misdirected.
So when I read your lines:
Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face
I think oh yes, this is the absolute essence distilled right down. A high priced perfume. What a price to pay.
Outstanding write. So fitting for the image.
Ooh I love this especially; "Don’t be caught dead wearing your own face."
Sooo sad, all the waste behind that mask. Beauty, intelligence, healthy spirits, and much much more that could be released. Did David's wife, Bathsheba, King Solomon's wife, have a mask to remove? She has scared the bejeebers out a third of the men in the world for ages now.
..
I relate to keeping one's eyes downcast. I spent years doing that way back.......also relate to hiding behind a makeup mask, which I did for some years till I got over it. LOL.
Your direct gaze
Confrontational
As if accusing the
one held in your gaze
Sometimes one just can't help but show a front. Yes annell, it is often a wise strategy.
Hank
Probing questions ... but perhaps she is unwilling to answer (for whatever reason) else why the mask in the first place?
I agree that this line of enquiry sits perfectly with the image you chose.
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