Peter Lindbergh: UNTITLED 116

Marti Eisenbrandt
Contemporary Issues in Photography
14 April 2010
Book Review

PETER LINDBERGH: UNTITLED 116

I received a copy of Peter Lindbergh’s “Untitled 116” as a Christmas gift this year. I was a bit taken aback when I first glanced through the pages because a majority of the book is written in German. I was forced to question if not being able to read the quotes beside each photograph would alter how I engaged in the photographs themselves. Peter Lindbergh is an interesting character, notoriously claiming he ‘was not in the least bit interested in photography,’ until the age of 29 when he picked up a camera in 1971. Fashion Photography is my favorite flavor of the medium when it comes to books; the artists tend to sequence the photographs intuitively, allowing a dose of magic to thread together nonsensical details. Untitled 116 was created by a fashion photographer, but the photographs are not at all fashionable. The book united 207 images of 116 women, celebrating the personality and individuality of Lindbergh’s favorite models.
The photographs are printed beautifully in black and white, although each page contains a different size photograph positioned randomly. I suppose this might reflect the specific nature of each woman. I had to sit and look through the book around ten times before my eyes and thoughts could create some sort of friction, ultimately leading to an imaginative narration that threaded a clear understanding of the photographer’s appreciation for women. Not until I sat down to write this did I notice a pamphlet stuck into the very last page containing a translation of the text injected into white spaces beside random photographs. Subjects such as Amber Valletta, Kate Blanchett, Brittany Murphy, Anna Nicole Smith, Esther Canadas, Julianne Moore, and Helena Bonham-Carter represent truly beautiful women. I know, ‘truly beautiful,’ sounds phony, but these photographs are not glamorous. The women are all dressed casually, absolutely no makeup, immersed in a comfortable environment and willingly expressing themselves to the camera. Immediately John Berger comes to mind; Are these women still posing, still perfecting their gaze for a male spectator? The photographer is male, however I become obsessively engaged with how the women compose themselves for these shots. Each being high profile celebrities, it isn’t hard for them to please an audience. The point is, they aren’t pleasing anyone but themselves. Although they are my least favored set of photographs, Anna Nicole Smith’s 5 photographs (one of those most pages given to a single subject) are the best example of the non-posed composure I am trying to explain. The first photograph shows her on the beach, hair loose and wavy, wearing an oversized men’s blazer. She is staring to the left of the frame while she clutches the breast of the blazer together very tightly, covering the only area where her skin would be exposed. The next page displays a vertical full body shot, where she is playfully striking a Marylin Monroe pose and smiling like a child. The quote beside her is by Federico Fellini, titled “Fare un film,” (Making a Film). The quote is too long to write out here, but on section states, “…Others aim to surprise you, they manifest themselves in the exuberance of certain companions who jokingly disguise themselves so that you do not recognize them; their vitality is violent, contagious…”
I am glad I did not see the translations before I fell in Love with this book because I wouldn’t have probed and searched for a meaning myself. I would have simply looked at the photo, looked at the text, and allowed myself to stop in the tracks of the aura of romanticized quotations. That being said, the text can serve as some form of guidebook, like cheat sheets for a video game. I am able to daydream a story about each woman using the words of Leonardo di Vinci, Peter Handke, James Joyce, and others. The words add a finishing act, and help me realize using a quote that doesn’t empirically explain the content of my final project is perfectly acceptable.