Jerzy Kosiński was a Polish American author who is reported to have said “The principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke” – that is exactly what we wanted to do when we came across some old magazines.
We found the magazines unloved and unwanted in a plastic box. Depiction of people has changed over the years, or in this case, decades. As a family, we laughed and laughed over the wonderful images in them. They were mostly Marie Claire magazines between 1936 and 1942.
Of course, the women were depicted as wonderful, stunning, elegant and with an air that is rarely seen in glossies today.
We found a whole game out of playing “What is she REALLY thinking?”
The results were fun.
Take a look at this lady here – her fabulous tailored coat, and perfectly positioned fashionable hat – but look at her expression – she is an absolute gem! Is she superior, or confident, perhaps exasperated…. the options seemed infinite.
These were a gold mine and we decided that they could be the basis for some brilliant and inspiring posters. What was so amazing about these pictures is that everyone can associate with the different expressions of the women – but now it simply isn’t socially acceptable to show those feelings!
But we found a way to do so with captions.
The first step was to clean up the images, the colours were faded, partly because of the printing capabilities of the time, and partly because of the styles and popular colours.
Then we had to find the most amusing captions for each one. This is our first attempt.