pierrot

This is an artful realization of Pierrot. The lighting, setting, composition, pose and costume all work together to give a strong impression.

The first thing one notices is the costume. It's simply arresting. Perhaps the corset could use another pom pom on the breast, but the three it has are enough to make a statement.

The feminine touches like the ruffles and the ribbons are appealing. If there's a kind of creepiness about the allure of this clown, there's equally a kind of charm within his creepiness. In the context of the stark contrasts of the costume and make up, the expressions of femininity insinuate the yin within the yang, a fluidity of yearning that itself serves as a sharp contrast to Bibi's mechanical appropriation of feminine longing, humorous, yes, but also strangely touching, as suits the theme of the jilted clown.

Bibi's off-kilter pose is a clown's mimesis of the photographer, who must also be slightly off-kilter and staring at the clown.

In the minor tradition of regarding the Pierrot figure as the alter ego of the artist, this shot contributes a wrinkle in that the interaction between you and Bibi figures into the exposition of the artist. One could almost imagine that you're discovering something genuinely foreign in Bibi's gaze, a feeling beyond recognition.

The setting looks like an abandoned psychiatric hospital and that little gurney at the edge of the shot conveys a terrifying chill. On inspection, the gurney seems to be a rather innocent piece of construction equipment, useful for erecting scaffolds or carnival tents. One laughs. The chill, though, remains, and that too is comical. Like Pierrot, we have trouble letting go.

My feelings about the lighting are mixed. Is it too much? Is it genius? On the genius side of the ledger, I note that the yang as a whole, because of the glare on the floor, has a feminine figure.

The lighting feels unnatural to me, as if its coldness were mismatched with its broad suffusion. It would look better in monochrome, I can imagine, and yet it has a kind of eeriness and oddness that belong in the image as you've presented it.

All around it's quite brilliant. Congratulations on a great shot.