Nellie Floating

20 X 24 inch silver gelatin print, selenium toned.

Crabtree 1994

Several of my friends were nervous about yet another quote from the Ophelia tradition, and the whole death/orgasm cultural baggage. Apparently even Edward Weston was nervous about his Nude Floating in 1939 because of its possible connotations. "Listen," I said to them, "the history of Art, like the hole in the Ozone layer, was not entirely my fault."

I was attracted by the way the water abstracted the body, and the repetition of the female symbols. If the other associations are there too... so much the better. Nellie doesn't like the way the distortion effect of the water minimises her breasts.