The phrase “golden triangle” refers to a range of things. Several geographical locations, a couple cultural phenomena, some sort of math thing.
Despite its range of meanings, it doesn’t come up in everyday conversation very often. But whenever I hear it, I think of this Elle Macpherson photo.
 |
| Photo: Marc Hispard |
That triangle has entranced me for decades. This might be the most gorgeous photo in a 1988 issue that was above average in gorgeousness.
This behind-the-scenes shot is enlightening.
It reveals how expertly the artifice is assembled to create a great swimsuit pic. Elle isn’t a sex goddess deep in some lush jungle, glistening with perspiration and rain, miles from civilization. She’s a girl in her mid-20s, getting splashed with a bit of water, in a clearing next to some kind of picnic venue.
But when the time comes, the hair descends and the hips tilt and the eyes glower. The shot snaps into place.
This picture is like the cover in 88 in that so much of her is still covered up yet both pics are just so damn sexy. Just proves that sexiness is more in the eyes and attitude than in showing skin.
ReplyDeleteThe 88 issue really was one of the sexiest ever. I remember reading that the magazine editor thought 87 was a little too tame and so Jule delivered this. Think they said they had to tone it down some for 89 since it was going to be everywhere as the 25th anniversary issue.
I'd never heard of that 87/88/89 sequence of sexiness. That's pretty amazing. So it wasn't my imagination that 1988 was a particularly stunning year...
ReplyDeleteThat second photo, the one from behind the scenes, is a great find! Can I ask you where you got it?
ReplyDeleteA few further comments:
1) It's funny how the camera lens can distort things, I always have to remind myself. You wouldn't know it from this photo, but Jule Campbell was actually about five inches shorter than Elle Macpherson in real life.
2) The 1988 issue was shot in Thailand, and if I remember correctly the shoot was famous for how often it rained and how seldom the sun shone. You could see get a sense of this from that second photo, and yet somehow they managed to produce the first photo.
3) The 1988 issue was the first one shot by Marc Hispard, who to me was like the secret MVP of the Golden Era of the Swimsuit issue. He was a full-time fashion photographer from Paris, unlike most SI photographers, for whom shooting swimsuit models was a one-time-per-year dream assignment. He'd already shot most of these models—Elle, Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford, Karen Alexander—for either American or French Elle, and apparently they were comfortable with him (in general the sexier the photo shoot, the more the model has to trust the photographer). Hispard came back for the iconic 1989 issue, where he shot Paulina Porizkova and also Stephanie Seymour/Rachel Hunter/Maria von Hartz/Kara Young. So he had more photos in that legendary issue than any other photographer—and played a memorable role in the HBO "Making Of" documentary, where he nonchalantly instructed the makeup artist to apply more oil to Stephanie Seymour's butt cheeks!
4) One of the great things about the digital era is that we finally get to see a lot of SI swimsuit photos that didn't make either the issue or the calendar. Some of those photos were actually superior, but didn't make the cut because they were too artistic or high-concept for the SI "brand" at the time.
My favorite "from the vault" photos from the 1988 issue are a) this one of Cindy Crawford, which I consider to be better than her much more famous Herb Ritts nudes from that same year. I consider this the Mona Lisa of Swimsuit Photos, not that anyone besides us three would care about such things!:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/model-cindy-crawford-is-photographed-for-the-1988-sports-news-photo/465777627?adppopup=true
(I know Cindy Crawford did not have a good experience shooting SI, but to me this is one of the best photos ever taken of her)
and also b) and c) these two of Elle Macpherson:
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/model-elle-macpherson-poses-for-the-1988-sports-illustrated-news-photo/81991649?adppopup=true
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/model-elle-macpherson-poses-for-the-1988-sports-illustrated-news-photo/81993160?adppopup=true
Thanks for the note! I remember that behind-the-scenes photo being from an Elle Macpherson retrospective on Swim Daily. This link is dead, but I think it must have been here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.si.com/2013/03/29/elle-macpherson-50/
(Nothing comes up from the Internet Archive for that page either...)
For the record, I believe that same link had the red one-piece of Elle, the second link you posted, without the Getty watermark.
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat first Getty Images photo, the one of Elle Macpherson by the running water, is the only photo I've seen of her that displays a full vertical line—from the top of Elle's head all the way down to the tip of her extended toes. That's about seven feet worth of vertical line!
ReplyDelete