The Natural Embrace

Gustav Klimt's The Kiss 1907-8 and Dazed & Confused May 2010 Shot by: Ben Toms

I love that the model in the Ben Toms editorial is wearing a blanket covered with a spherical pattern. Klimt used circles as symbols of the female anatomy and cylindrical shapes to represent the male. The Kiss is a painting that is well known and widely considered a very romantic painting. I have always noticed a sort of violent under-tone in the distortion of the females neck and the intense placement of the male's hands. This sort of violent-sexual undertone is somewhat paralled in the photo shoot, as seen in the abrasive stance and gaze of the two lovers.