Carlo Mollino《Just GREAT》

"POLAROIDS"

Photography by Carlo Mollino

Published by Arena Editions Santa Fe 2002

Only an obsessive with a keen eye and a love for the female form could have produced such sensuous pictures of women in various states of undress. And using just a Polaroid camera no less. Carlo Mollino's secret project was not revealed until after his death when executors found these photos at his villa near Turin. For thirteen years he captured these images of various women at the villa. Though the publisher's description below suggests that at least some of them were prostitutes there is really no way of knowing who they were and that is part of the allure of this posthumous collection. Mollino is playing out his own vision of femininity and sexuality apparently with no care for how it would appear to the world.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

"Less well known but perhaps even more compelling are Mollino's erotic Polaroid photographs of the prostitutes and women of Torino made beginning in the 1960s. Created in the confines of Casa Mollino the magically surreal and mystical studio in Turin that Mollino occupied during the last fourteen years of his life the erotic Polaroids suggest an exercise in obsession and voyeurism. Mollino incessantly controlled every aspect of these remarkable images from choosing the clothing and fine lingerie the women wore to the precise posing and staging often photographing the women against curtain drops or tiled floors with objects he owned or on furniture he designed.

"Mollino fetishized women for in these extraordinary images he sought an ideal form of beauty which he carefully honed piece by piece with a camera process that offered instant gratification and quick editing. In the Polaroids published here culled from over 1500 extant examples female beauty is isolated taken apart and put back together. Although few of these images are fragmented or abstracted Mollino lingered over body parts and the erotic regions of the female body. Pubic deltas of jet black and platinum blond hair navels breasts and rosy nipples legs feet hands and women's backsides and sex are feature attributes in these otherworldly tableaux. However Mollino rarely stopped there going even further to improve on the perfect shot by tinting incising and actually painting images with a microscopic brush. He narrowed thighs hips and waists embellished pubic hair or breasts to reach his ideal form of woman.

"To date only a handful of Mollino's Polaroids fetching large sums at auction have ever been available to the public. This book reproducing more than 250 examples is the first comprehensive look at the last great chapter of Mollino's exceptional career."

Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari are the foremost experts on Carlo Mollino. Together they manage the Casa Mollino in Turin Mollino's last studio and the repository of his photographs objects and other important materials.

A red textured hardcover features a tipped-in color photograph. The Artist's name the title and publisher are all stamped in gold on the spine. It measures 9 x 10 ¾ inches. 220 pages with 260 color illustrations. Features essays by Fulvio Ferrari and Napoleone Ferrari.