Catalina Fabrics - Overposed and underexposed.

Today witnesses the first of a new category on Phil Are Go!... overposed photographs. I think I see enough of these to call it an idiom of the mid century. Photographers and art directors put their models in poses that we would call corny or silly. It doesn't look very realistic, and rather than sending us into teh store waving our wallets, we just laugh and turn the page.

Today's picture comes from Holiday magazine - the lifestyle journal of the privileged, moneyed and useless. Its pages are filled with ads for Chris Craft yachts, expensive whiskey and resorts around the world.

Pacific fabrics made swimsuits. Maybe they still do. I don't care enough to check today, partially because time is a little short. I won't make fun of the old fashioned modesty of the swimsuits apart from saying they're too modest. They look like they're wearing lampshades. I dunno. Maybe pacific also made lampshades?

No, the reason we're here is to laugh at the little girl. Nobody has ever stood like this unless they were told to by an art director or a choreographer. She's overposed.

No little girl points the toes and flips her arm out like a songbird, as if she's exploring a delightful wonderland, animated for her by Disney.

"Oh look mummy. Some of the little villagers are fishing for their supper. How darling!" "Yes, sweetums, and your daddy's mercury extraction plant is just across the water there. It's the reason you'll never work a day in your life, and the reason all the villagers are having flipper babies. Isn't that cute of them?"

I have some more overposed ads in the stockpile, so look forward to seeing these pop up from time to time. Or don't, but they'll still be popping up. Isn't that darling of them?