Guy Bourdin- The Girl Under the Bed

In a richly textured bedroom the divide between youthful innocence and sexual maturity is starkly presented. The plump cheeks of a nude figure’s bottom are exposed as they peak from under the bed in the centre of the frame. A cute plush elephant lies discarded on the covers above. The question lingers-is this a girl or a woman? Are we the curious voyeurs of an illicit act?

The setting is sparse, yet the colors are densely saturated-filling the scene with vibrancy and light. The luxurious sheen of the quilt, the soft thickness of the carpet-both tactile and inviting. You want to reach in and touch, but this is the problem. Temptation and prohibition.

The cropped frame draws you in along the slight spread of the female’s legs and up to the tip of the elephant’s trunk. What is it we cannot see? What lies beyond the frame? 

As with the majority of Bourdin’s work this scene is both provocative and disquieting. The careful placing of bare skin and the meticulous choice of a singular, heavily connoted, object creates a powerful atmosphere of drama and tension. We are both intrigued and repelled. Fascinated by the captured scene and yet fearful of what it represents.

The female figure is truncated and anonymous. She could be anyone. She is everyone. A symbol of girlish naivety overcome by the desire for adult sexuality. The abundance of pink tones dominates the frame like a parody of stereotypical young femininity. The sheer black stockings-the girl’s solitary item of clothing-stand in sharp contrast as a reminder of the adult world of dressing-up. An intimate item of hosiery put on for practical wear or seductive observation?

The enclosed space of the frame makes the girl appear captured, submissive and starkly exposed for the voyeurs observance. In a typically Bourdinian manner the nudity is neither gratuitous nor erotic. It elicits the question of who or what is this photograph for? Is the production of fashion images featuring women exploitative? Materialistic? What is this image trying to say? Like most of Bourdin’s work this photo invites more questions than it answers.