Swimsuit Issue photobooth followup
March 3, 2005
I had lunch with my friend Nate whose absent brother has a subscription to Sports Illustrated. (notice how I try to separate myself from this magazine) We located the Swimsuit Issue and I carefully removed the photobooth pages for my growing file. Two things of interest: (1) the photobooth used to take the pictures is in need of some attention — pictures are muddy and out of focus signaling time for a chemical change, and (2) a few of the photographs are faked! A pic by pic dissection in the extended entry.
Page 22
These three look legit. However, the first one (Ana Beatriz Barros) seems like it was taken at a different time. Much whiter whites, blacker blacks.
Page 24
Legit. Yamila Diaz-Rahi’s strip looks like it was pieced together from a few different sittings. (irregular border) [It is probably not a great idea to use “Yamila Diaz-Rahi” and “strip” in the same post — could unwittingly drive mega-traffic to this site]
Page 26
The Michelle Alves series seems also pasted together from a few different settings. The border is messed up.
Page 28
These all look like they were taken in the booth, but each frame of Michelle Lombardo’s strip have been cropped — the aspect ratio is wrong.
Page 30
Jessica Van Der Steen’s is most definitely fake. Too bright, too close, too clear. Can you say “glamour shots”?
Last page of magazine
This is undoubtedly fake, yet they used the distinctive photobooth black frame.
Tim | 1:42 AM | In the News
Comments
This is the kind of hard-hitting commentary I have come to expect from you, Tim. All kidding aside, I'm once again glad there's finally a home for all of this stuff. Keep it coming...
Brian | March 22, 2005 4:57 PM
I was afraid I might get outed for the commentary. :) I do find it fascinating however -- this faux photobooth trend reminds me of when my brothers and I used to take the little alligator emblem off our old Izod shirts and have my mom sew them on newer (less expensive) shirts. To what ailment does this point... some bizarre cultural insecurity? On the positive side, it is clearly not important for some of these publications that the pictures be *taken* in the photobooth, but rather *represent* the experience of the photobooth. To me, this adds a little weight to what we are doing -- the photobooth isn't just an historic artifact, but seems to have reached iconographic status. (Brian, I anxiously await your essay entitled "Photobooth, Princess of Postmodernity: Sign, Signifier, Signified in four poses")
Tim | March 22, 2005 5:08 PM
Comments are now closed for this entry. Thanks.
