Dangerous Women

>> Did everyone get good hefty tomes for Christmas?  I hope so.  When I was doing the last bits of convenient Amazon gift shopping, I put a few cheeky additions for myself into the basket.  One of them was Dangerous Women, a collation of found imagery, gathered by Peter J. Cohen, a New York-based investment banker slash antique photography enthusiast.  Cohen became obsessed by photographs in the early half of the 20th century of “dangerous” women, behaving badly in a corseted and stiff society.  That image of women still persists today through stuffy period dramas and traditional portraiture.  Through Cohen’s brilliant finds though, these anonymous women are basically havin’ a laugh openly – drinking, shooting and being candid in front of the camera lens.

It’s basically the equivalent of images you’d see on Facebook of gals living it large, had the social media platform existed back in 1920s onwards.  The book was exactly the visual reminder I needed for 2016. “Dangerous” is a misleading title considering the joy and positivity expressed in Cohen’s collection of photographs.  Risk-taking perhaps is a more appropriate adjective, although it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as smoothly.  But risking it is what I’m fixated on as a loose resolution for the new year.  I say “loose” because I don’t tend to make concrete promises to do things, lest I break them one month in (no ‘dry’ or ‘get-fit’ Januaries for me).  The cheeky winks, broad smiles and mischievous expressions on the faces of these women though are prompting me to perhaps broaden my own horizons.  In what way, I’m yet to know.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why you’re reading a Susie Livejournal entry, style-wise, don’t these women just look supremely cool and cavalier?