Journal Entry #2

Toni Frissell

Weeki Wachee spring, Florida

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This image, Weeki Wachee spring, Florida, was taken in 1947 and is a black and white negative of an underwater-view of a woman in a white dress. Her face is above the water-line and not visable, her hands are extended beneath her almost as if she had just fallen into the water but there are no bubbles nor are there significant ripples on the surface of the water to indicate such. The photo utilizes an extended depth of field, only the surface of the water closest and the farthest from us are out of focus. The photo is roughly divided into thirds; the top third is the water’s surface and is distorted and rippled from our point of view beneath, the middle third contains the woman and a far away and dark background, the last third is middle ground and middle gray – it is some kind of underwater embankment in the spring. There is an overwhelming sense of empty space beneath the water’s surface of which the woman is a middling distance from the viewer.

The image was taken by the noted photographer Toni Frissell (1907-1988). She began her career in fashion photography for magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, moved on to war photography during WWII, then to celebrity photography after the war and finished her career as one of the first women to enter the field of sports photography. Weeki Wachee spring, Florida was originally published in the women’s magazine, Haper’s Bazzar in December of 1947. It was later republished in Sport’s Illustrated in 1955.

Knowing that Toni started her career in fashion, it is easy to suppose that this was in fact a model creating a photo for a fashion magazine. Weeki Wachee spring is famous for its underwater theatre, which opened the year this photograph was taken. Knowing these things, it appears that the photo becomes nothing more than a new and innovative way to advertise a new dress. My fascination with this particular photo, however, is when it’s taken out of context.

Just looking at this photo without any background information, the image suggests a haunted feeling. The choice of black and white pulls me back in time, as though I’m witnessing an event that transpired long ago. The clarity of the image gives me a sense of being with the woman, underwater. I can feel the ripples that touch her face as clearly as I can see them. Because she is not too far away from me I am drawn to her, but she is not so close that I could save her were she to slip underwater and give up, much like Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The unique perspective of being underneath the surface of the water gives the viewer an almost ghostly feel; it is a perspective to which we are not accustomed. The sense of massive space around the woman’s body at once makes her seem small and even delicate and fragile but also tenacious. That when faced with overwhelming emptiness around her, she has not yet slipped beneath the surface of the spring. Even knowing that this would appear in a magazine, I cannot help but feel the artist understood the complex emotions this photo would produce.