Harriet Tannin and Levi Cruz are very well suited for their collaboration in the series "Intimate Apparel : 1880-1980 From Bustles to Boxers." Levi is a successful commercial photographer from southern California. He moved east to concentrate on fine art. Harriet's background is in fine art. She has a Master of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at New Paltz and in the last twenty-five years she has frequently exhibited her paintings and photographs.
Harriet Tannin and Levi Cruz met at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and began to work together on some projects. When they discovered Rayann Fatizzi's collection of vintage lingerie from the past 100 years, it excited them both. The collection has enormous intellectual import representing as it does changes in the position of women in our society as well as the vast changes in sexual attitudes.
How would they use the collection? There were so many visual possibilities. They were certain they did not want to do a chronology or to emphasize historical detail; nor did they want to imitate commercial drawings or fashion plates of earlier epochs.
They began to envision vignettes, scenes and settings with real people. The young women they chose to model the lingerie were almost all non-professionals. They wanted their naivete in playing roles and their naturalness in pose and posture. The models enjoyed dressing up - the garments might have come from an attic - and the drama of participating in an artistic project. The interplay between the contemporary attitudes of the models and the evocation of earlier attitudes through the lingerie created an artistic dynamic.
The garments were very beautiful in themselves, fine voiles, fine cottons, silks, Victorian lace, and Edwardian froufrou.
They emphasized character, mood and atmosphere. The undergarments clothe musing maidens; are ready as underpinnings for society ball gowns; swish under actresses; breathe with opera stars. Those laced with bone or change the female shape with mental seem curious to us today. In some scenes, the addition of gloves or hats is meant to cause laughter.
Their aesthetics are contemporary. Of utmost importance are unifying the picture plane with the major structural elements; setting up the distribution of blacks and whites, of shadows and highlights; creating variety with decorative motifs, ornamentation, textures and over-all patterning.
The contemporary nature of their artistry and the originality of their use of the collection of vintage lingerie make this an important group of photographs. The collection debuted at the Woodstock Artists Association on August 1, 1998. The audience response to the wit and humor as well as to the intrinsic interest of the subject matter was very gratifying.
They hope to reach a wider public through a traveling exhibition and catalogue or through publication of the series.
Some of the photographs were included in "Unmentionables; A Brief History". They can be viewed on the Arts & Entertainment channel on January 17, 1999.