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| Thérèse Bonney (1894-1978) |
Not for the first time do I find my self returning to the subject of mannequins. In fact we even featured them in Photo Challenge May 2024. In the same way that I find clowns and ventriloquist dummies menacing, so the inanimate human doppelgängers found in millions of shop windows the world over have a tendency to, if not chill me to the marrow, haunt me in my darkest dreams. (I blame Dr. Who.)
Thérèse Bonney was a photographer of great repute. Born in New York in the late 19th century she was heralded for her depictions of children on the Russian-Finnish Front in WW2. Much of her work can be found in the Smithsonian; whether or not the following images of hers can be found there, I can't say for sure. However, for me, I find them far more shocking than any war photography.
Ooh, icredibly creepy and haunting but fascinating - compelling, too. The man in your third picture down also looks like a mannequin... hmm, pehaps he is?
ReplyDeleteI do like that photo of Therese herself too.
Yes, all of the above. What is it about these dummies that draws me to them? A shrink would have a field day with me. "Lie down on the couch and tell me about your mother..."
DeleteYou're not alone! Apologies if I've mentioned it before but when I was around 9 or 10 I rather fell in love with a shop dummy in a local boutique and wished so hard that I could have her as an oversized doll. Of course it never happened but imagine if somehow it had and if I'd kept her, a classic mannequin (one with the integral 'moulded' hair, not the synthetic wig or no hair at all) from the early '70s. Her 'skin' would probably have gone a bit off colour, maybe yellowy-green, and her fingers would probably be a bit chipped. I could dress her up in mad clothes and stick her in the front window.
DeleteThat's done it - I want one.
You really should read 'Klara and the Sun' by Kazuo Ishiguro.
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