Jan Saudek

One of the common themes among Jan Saudek's photography were images of women. I think that she had the idea that women were oppressed or viewed in a stereotypical manner. Many of her pictures depict women in the nude and appear to be submissive to men or are shown to be sad or depressed. She combines the elements of repulsiveness and attractiveness in the majority of her photos in order to convey her point to the viewers. In the pictures above, for example, an "ugly" brown tint is used in the background and throughout the entire photo. Many of her photos appear to be aging or are slightly demolished in order to show society's crumbling opinion of women. However, Saudek's pictures remain beautiful at the same time because she adds pops of vibrant colors or has beautiful models within the photo. In the photo on the left, Saudek uses a woman model. However, one of the key features of this image is the fact that the woman is wearing men's clothes and is holding a baseball mitt, which represents a masculine sport. It is apparent by the look on the woman's face that she is questioning of this setup and may be slightly laughing to herself at the atrociousness of this concept. The photo on the right is an image of an innocent, beautiful young girl. She appears to be dressed up as an older woman and perhaps is showing a patch of skin on her shoulder in order to please men in her society. There are many more photos that convey Saudek's disdain for men's perception of women, but these images are much more sexually explicit. They often show a man being dominant over a woman.