Promises and resolutions for the New Year? We won't keep them, so let's avoid making any commitments. For this year, let's just aim for the stars. An inspiration to do so? Cecil Beaton's picture of his sister Nancy Beaton dressed up as a shooting star for the Galaxy Ball in 1928.
Earlier on in his career, Beaton often used his sisters Nancy and Baba in place of models and actresses. In this image Nancy is wrapped in glistening cellophane, a material that was very popular at the time and that gave the image a homemade flair. At the same time, illuminating Nancy with a light behind her head, Beaton created a dazzling and theatrical effect, almost a fantasy-like atmosphere.
The image reunites two popular trends at the time - comets and new materials such as cellophane. Comets were popular Art Deco motifs asp proved by Maurice Guiraud-Rivière's 1903 sculpture "The Comet", depicting a speeding Goddess with streaming hair diving through the clouds (View this photo), by Fernand Léger's study of a comet related to a screen (View this photo) designed for the villa of the American Gerald Murphy at Antibes in 1931 or by Paul Iribe's 1932 comets and star necklaces for Coco Chanel (View this photo).
At the time cellophane was considered a new and exciting material: Florine Stettheimer was an enthusiastic champion of cellophane: her studio featured cellophane curtains (View this photo) and she employed this material for the sets for Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein's Four Saints in Three Acts" (View this photo), ending up sparking a fashion trend.
Interviewed by Tate Etc. (Issue 13, Summer 2008) about the image, Juergen Teller stated about the "fairy tale" picture: "the photograph is really magical and the use of that foil is such a simple way to put some glitter and fantasy into it. In his early portraits Beaton often used backdrops of beautiful fabric or other material to surround the subject, and it distances them from their real selves as much as the imaginative costume. The photograph, and the sitter, is timeless, charming and innocent."
For this year, though, let's hope that there will be less cellophane and plastic in our lives, that we will all start to actively contribute more to stop climate change, and that people living in war-torn countries will start seeing skies lit up with real stars rather than with rockets and missiles.
For those of us aiming for the stars, there is a last important note to remember: if we aren't able to reach the stars we're aiming for, let's not despair. In the end, it's the journey to the stars that counts, the people we will meet along the way and the experiences we will make. May your journey to the stars be full of surprises and joys. Have a Starry New Year!
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