Tropical Blend is an
unchallenging collection of photographs of nude and partially clothed young women
in a tropical location.  We get sun, surf, sand and skinny stunning models. 
The photography is similar to that in fashion magazines and advertisements for
perfumes.  The quality of production is high, the women look healthy, vibrant,
often a little distant, and occasionally in rapture.  Poinsard uses different
lights, with evening shots with blue hues, golden hues, or underwater shots
with the aquamarine of the sea.  Occasionally he uses silhouettes or has his
models appear contrasted by bright lights behind them.  His gives his models a
certain poise and mystery, and his most successful images are a little cool in
tone.  One of the most interesting pictures shows just a pair of feet in water,
with white stones underneath.  It is hard to make feet interesting, but
Poinsard manages it.  In another picture, a woman looks into the camera with
just her head above water, in an indoor pool, with reflections and light
playing all over the image, and the combinations with slightly distorted lines
gives a striking geometrical impact.  Some of the other most successful
pictures are simple close ups of faces: in one, again with the woman in water,
but this time outdoors in the sea, her eyes are a little closed, her mouth is a
little open, and she has some droplets of water on her face; the image has a
slightly eerie quality which is quite distinctive.  As ever with these sorts of
books, the more conventional glamour pictures are pretty but rather dull. 
Presumably to be commercially successful, it is better to be more conventional,
but if Poinsard is to develop his own vision, he will need to present more of
his artistically adventurous images. 

© 2006 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: ArtAndPhotography