Indulgences

Indulgences· 4 min

The Unhurried City: Smoke on a Milan Balcony

Every great city has a native art form that never appears in the guidebooks. In Milan it is the pause: the ability to step out of the working… Indulgences· 4 min

Hips as Landscape: The Wide Bodyscape

Squint at this photograph from across the room and you will not see a body at all. You will see a dune: one long bright ridge rising out… Indulgences· 4 min

Playful, Not Posed: Legs Against the Wall

Every boudoir session has two photographs hidden inside it. The first is the pose: arranged, lit, held. The second arrives about ninety seconds later, when the model stops… Indulgences· 4 min

The Back as Landscape: A Study in Soft Light

Of all the parts of the body a painter can choose, the back is the one that never performs. A face arranges itself for whoever is looking. A… Indulgences· 4 min

Before the Code: Two Martinis and No Apologies

There was a brief, bright window in American cinema — roughly five years — when the films showed grown-ups behaving like grown-ups. They drank in public, dressed for… Indulgences· 4 min

Everyone Has a Lighter: One Woman, a Piazza Full of Hands

Count the hands. That is the first thing everyone does in front of this small, dense, unforgettable photograph: from the left, a hand cupping a lit match; from… Indulgences· 4 min

Trouble in the Limo: A Back-Seat Joke, Frozen by Flash

Every long night out has an official story and a back-of-the-car story. The official story is the restaurant, the party, the photographs with everyone’s hair in place. The… Indulgences· 3 min

The Red Carpet Couple: Nineties Cool, Caught Between Flashes

Every decade gets the red carpet couple it deserves, and the nineties got this: two young people so entirely uninterested in the machinery around them that the machinery… Indulgences· 4 min

Four Friends in the City: The Apartment, the Books and the Look

Ask anyone to picture four friends in the city and they will give you the famous version: four women in heels, mid-crossing, traffic politely frozen around them. It… Indulgences· 3 min

The Bubble Bath: Pure Joy, Printed in Black and White

Most of the photographs in this store are about composure — drivers at prayer, women declining newspapers, couples ignoring cameras. This one is about the opposite. It is…