Cardboard Ladies

There is something about the formality of traditional portraiture which seems to invite parody. Swiss photographer Christian Tagliavini obliges by abandoning fully 3-dimensional human subjects altogether. In his series Dame di Cartone (Cardboard Ladies), he takes fancy dress to a rather strange and illogical conclusion by replacing his sitters' bodies with cardboard costumes from various eras. They seem to be an affectionate and slight;y teasing tribute to both fashion photography and art history. I find this imagery to be both imaginative and of course completely crazy. The purpose is not to earnestly portray these individuals, who dont even seem to have names, instead he toys with the idea of making fun of early portrait photography.

I find this body of work to be both captivating but also slightly annoying, however this is possibly only due to the makeup and the facial expression of the models or sitters. The very concept behind this imagery is gleefully bizarre, when I decide to do a photoshoot I find cardboard doesnt possess the qualities I want in a fabric. There isnt necessarily a narrative more just an underlying theme. I would like to go out on a limb and try to do a photoshoot of this calibre however I dont feel it is necessarily my style. I still feel this work is captivating and despite not being completely to my taste, I feel there is a lot that can be learned from his work.