Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Kirsten Dunst for Boy by Band of Outsiders

Moody girl.




Kirsten Dunst for Boy by Band of Outsiders
Photographed at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, CA
Photographer (and designer): Scott Sternberg


We have to admit, there's something a little sobering about the rise of the humble Polaroid to aesthetic heights. You see them now in ads, editorials, on CD covers, and well, just about any medium or genre of visual expression. What's sobering about it is that the usage is of the "ironic" vein; an "old timey" mode of visual representation, like a daguerreotype. What makes this so hard for us to accept it is that we were young when Polaroids were all the rage in a totally unironic sense. We're old enough that the forms of expression of our childhoods are now considered classic and evocative in the same way that, say, WWII-era picture-taking looked to us back in the '70s and '80s. In other words, we can't look at any modern pseudo-Polaroid without it making us feel really, really old. It's like the first time you hear your prom theme played on an "oldies" station.

Having said all that...


We do love this campaign. It's evocative, moody, and intimate; despite the graininess and poor light, it does a very good job of selling the "mood" of the clothes. And Kirsten is a perfect choice of model; a modern girl who has a bit of an edge and a totally old-fashioned face. They almost tell a story, the way real snapshots do; as if you and your girlfriend spent a fun day together (in which she inexplicably changed her outfit 6 or 7 times) and these are the pictures you took and you just found them after years of being tucked away in a box somewhere.


















[Photo Credit: boy.bandofoutsiders.com]

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