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Artist Gil Elvgren (1914-1980) was most known for his paintings of pin up models from the 1930’s-1970’s. As the decades have passed these paintings have become viewed by many as sexist. But despite this Elvgren’s work is still highly regarded as a slice of Americana and a touchstone of popular culture. While it would be easy to write off these pictures as sexist relics form the past, I think that they are still well worth looking at.
The idea for this project first came to me when I saw an article showing the original reference models with whom Elvgren worked. In particular, I noticed how the majority of the models did not look like the subjects in the final images. They were not thin, did not have big breasts, had age lines, and the other "imperfections", you would expect of real people. Elvgren essentially Photoshopped these women before Photoshop existed.
The goal of this project was twofold. I wanted to underscore how real women differ from idealized fantasies in Elvgren’s pinups. I was also interested in giving agency back to the subjects. All of my models selected images from Elvgren’s catalogue of work and decided how closely they would replicate the time period (make up, hair, clothes, etc.) of the originals. The women in these photographs also determined what spin to add, in effect making the pictures their own. Some models wanted to add a comedic touch. Others opted for a straightforward recreation. In the end this is as much my subjects’ project as it is mine.