Day 363 - A Piece of Paradise

This is Corina, photographed by Stefan Soell. Seems that this girl is his favorite model. This woman have an incredible body, her anatomy is 99% perfect. The light is divine, the composition is strong, the depth of field is excellent, the atmosphere is heavenly - a bucolic Garden Of Eden. This is, no doubt, a great image - at least from the technical point of view. Then why do I feel it is not enough? What is missing? Well, in my opinion, a good image is the one that tells more than it shows. Could it be the feeling that is TOO PERFECT that bothers me? A heavenly nude female beauty in a heavenly countryside late afternoon landscape. What is this superb woman looking at? Sunset? Can we suppose she is looking at another human being or she is completely alone? What does it tells us, beyond what we see? Does it arouse any erotic feelings? In other words, is this image warm or cold? Is it inducing the feeling of happiness and joy? Well, could Eve have been blonde? Can we imagine any fences in Paradise? That fence is a sign of human presence. It is a limit, a border, a separation between two spaces - it is, in this case, what brings us out of heaven back to Earth. The woman is watching something beyond that fence, something that this fence is preventing her to reach. Seems like she is retained by this fence, she stands still at the border, crossing this limit only with her sight. Her profile is showing us an astonished, somehow fearful, expression, like she is overwhelmed by the cosmic beauty of the sunset. Here it is that beautiful sadness we all feel when another day is going to end. The monumental image of the sunset is always sad, no matter how optimistic we are. It is bringing us the sense of passing time and that feeling of nightfall, when the darkness is conquering the world step by step. We could see that sentiment on the woman's face. Seems like she is having the premonition of the night. Every reference we have is going to melt in the darkness.
How do we read this image? Is it inspiring us to imagine more than it shows?
The answer is yes.

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