Golden Hair

Today’s Post by Mildred Alpern

A recurrent image of Edvard Munch, the Norwegian Expressionist painter, is a young woman in white. She has long golden hair and a lithe figure. In many paintings her face is concealed. We see only her back as she seems to gaze into her future. As a visual metaphor for private reverie, with no facial expression to read, interpretation is left to the viewer’s imagination.

With Munch in mind, I directed my friend Gina in a series of experimental poses that emphasized her youth and veiled her face, at least partially, with her streaming hair. The early afternoon sun was glowing, casting sunlight and shade in varied patterns. Gina was willing to indulge me as she posed on the grass with rose in hand, stepped into a shed, and raised her head to sniff the roses. For our next photo shoot, I have advised her to wear a long white dress, and I am scouting for a seashore setting.

For those of you who are curious to see this lovely woman’s face, she appears in an earlier post of mine entitled “The Rembrandt Portrait.”

All images were shot with the Olympus E-M5 Mark II and the Olympus M Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R lens. Gina in the shed at 70mm with an exposure of 1/4000 at f/4.6, -1 1/3EV, ISO 1600; on the grass, at 70mm with an exposure of 1/8000 at f/4.6, -1 1/3 EV, ISO 1600; sniffing the roses, at 40mm with an exposure of 1.3200 at f/4, -2/3EV, ISO 1600