This is a response by Ricardo Bloch to
May 2014
The image is the modern equivalent of the classical theme of the beauty and her procuress, as in the Jan Gerritsz painting seen here. The procuress's role is to find men for her charge. In the photograph in question the photographer plays the role of the procuress, advertising 'the goods' for mostly male consumption, probably under commission by some magazine that lives off of the prurient gazes of its readers. The role of the procuress is being played by both the photographer in the image and Inge Morath (if she is not the subject of a self-portrait). Needless to say, the man in the painting is now the viewer of the photograph.
