This weekend I visited Smog City (that's right, Los Angeles) to visit some old friends. While there, I visited the Getty Museum and stumbled upon an incredible photography exhibition of Jo Ann Callis' work. She worked in colored photography early in its history, when most artists considered it to be a lower life form used explicitly for advertising and commercial endeavors. Her work focuses heavily on domestic themes (she dropped out of art school to get married and raise her two children and only returned to UCLA for night classes after they had grown up)ranging from the internal lives of women to household fabrics.
My favorite of Callis' works focused on desserts. Callis - a very healthy lady in her own right - believes that desserts are innately connected to guilt, much like sex and other vices. She emphasizes the forbidden nature of glossy puff pastries and steamy pies in a series of photos called "Forbidden Pleasures." The quality of the pictures are stunning - the richness of the fabrics, the dancing light, the focus on the pastries' distinct forms. I loved it all! Except, I was disappointed that Ms. Callis reportedly did not sample ANY of the pastries herself. Sounds like she is suffering from a debilitating case of dessert guilt.
And the grand finale....Georgia O'Keeffe in pie form:
"Sometimes in today's culture, the words used for eating indulgences such as fattening, unhealthy desserts are similar to the words used for forbidden sex. I wanted to make the desserts look as sexy and seductive as they do in reality. I wanted the viewer to respond to their texture and to their imagined taste; to the feeling one might get from smelling and tasting them. "Doughnut" pictures a round, glazed doughnut with a little drip in the front, falling onto gently colored, pink-and-grey fabric. How can one photograph sexy desserts and not include a doughnut?" --Jo Ann Callis
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