Veruschka

October 17th, 2009

Richard Avedon

My mother hoarded magazines. My grandmother hoarded images, art catalogues, menus, postcards, theatre programs and news clippings. In those days there was no Internet, and for my grandmother, no television, and thus printed images were precious. My mother was also a newspaper clipping aficionado and champion magazine hoarder.

I picked up the habit and have carried with me, for the last twenty years, an old cardboard box full of images I like. There is no pattern that dictates inclusion. I just like them or they interest me. So for a bit of an image bowerbird like myself, Google Image is a siren, singing to me of the voluptuous pleasures of time wasting.

As I warmed up for a writing session this morning, (actually I was cunctating, but I like to kid myself), I googled Mary Quant, which led me to Julie Christie which led me to Twiggy (whose images used to scare me) which led me to Veruschka and it all came flooding back. As a child I used to endlessly look at my mother’s Vogue magazines from the 60’s and 70’s and I remember being fascinated with the model Veruschka.

I had to post these images. I’ll save the colour ones because they deserve their own post. I particularly like Veruschka’s self-portrait as an Afghan hound. I would adore to be clothed and made up like a chocolate Labrador. Not as dramatic as a longhaired Afghan, I know, but I’ve always had a personal preference for short sleek fur.