L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Sunday, July 30, 2017

Sophia Loren, three photographs by Phil Stern, circa 1957-58.



***

As I've said before, I often have to do a lot of work on the images I post; I want them to look good! Getting things right also often involves a lot of sleuthing. Among the many indignities that have been done to images one finds on the internet is "flipping"; many things - even very well known paintings or photographs - have been reversed from the original, presented as a mirror image. I'm usually quite good at spotting when this happens. But all three of these photographs of the divine Miss Loren were found going both ways, and it was tough to come to a judgement on which way was correct. Turns out the lady has a surprisingly symmetrical face, and the photographs actually looked correct both ways. So I looked at many, many other contemporary images of her, searching for clues. The most promising was her hairstyle, which direction her hair was arranged during this period. But then she's so windblown here, that that didn't end up being a useful factor. I finally noticed that one side of her upper lip tended to rest a tiny bit higher than the other... so I went with that! I'm still not one hundred percent sure I got it right but, frankly, she looks amazing any way you flip or flop her. Am I right?

This is the way I most often found the first image. Perhaps reversed, but beautiful, no?




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