Photo du Jour: An Illusive Poolside Nymph

Sois Belle …

Annelie Vandendael is not your typical fashion photographer. Her models are often partially obscured or surreally headless, the lovely forms always evading a direct gaze. Vandendael is concerned with loss of identity in the standard fashion photo, a genre where women are often heavily manipulated and edited until there is no trace of reality. We are constantly exposed to an ideal – a face, a location, a world – that does not actually exist. For Vandenael, it is imperfection and obscurity that makes an image interesting, allowing for a different sort of fantasy to emerge. In this particular photo, she captures a swimmer in a deep green pool in Australia. The model lounges nymph-like and faceless into the water’s cool colors in a gesture that is simultaneously intriguing and illusive. Here what we do no see is the true fascination.

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