Adolphe Sylvain
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Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
Exotic Natural Beauty in Paradise 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 13 people found this review helpful.
Summary: Adolphe Sylvain had an eye for the images that people in developed countries imagine about a fairy tale South Pacific. Many of our ideas about what a tropical paradise is come from his photographs. For a few minutes, you can imagine yourself to be part of a local village of people who fish for a living back in the 1940s and 1950s. This book is dominated by scenes of native Polynesians enjoying the natural beauty of Tahiti. The model is most frequently M. Sylvain's Tahitian wife, nee Ms. Jeanine Tehani Vidal, whom he married in 1946.Content Caution: Before proceeding further, please realize (as the cover image indicates) that this book is filled with photographs of topless and nude female models, usually the photographer's wife. These images would earn this book's material an R rating if it were a motion picture.
Review: M. Sylvain's photography makes unusually good use of black-and-white contrasts for capturing lush tropical landscapes, lagoons and beaches, nudes, and everyday scenes in Tahiti. His work benefits from the frequent use of his wife, Tehani, as a model. She is remarkably relaxed and happy in these images, and helps to set a mood of natural enjoyment of nature that will have the viewer yearning for Tahiti. Lest you think these scenes are very overposed, I saw scenes very much like these during a vacation in Tahiti in the mid-1980s.
Some of the images are ragged around the edges, which reflects the terrible loss of much of M. Sylvain's work during a fire in his studio. Some of these images were rescued from the debris that remained. As a result, these images almost all date from 1946-1957.
Ms. Sylvain will remind you of a sea otter in some of the images, as she glides effortlessly through the crystal lagoon water. Her connection with nature is direct and joyous. Her apparent pleasure in what she is doing is infectious.
The images themselves are well composed, technically very fine, and the reproduction quality is excellent.
Towards the end of the book, you will also see some photographs of famous visitors to the island like Brigitte Bardot and Charles de Gaulle.
My original interest in visiting Tahiti was tied to having watched a television series, called Adventures in Paradise. The stories related to a schooner captin operating out of Papeete. When I read the book, I was interested to see that M. Sylvain had been an adviser to that series as well as other major filming in Tahiti over the years.
Many people also know Paul Gauguin's paintings of Tahiti, which have also helped form expectations about the islands and their people. In particular, James Michener with his Tales of the South Pacific helped created an image of beautiful, winning Polynesian maidens that is echoed here. Ms. Sylvain observes that her husband played a key role in creating the myth of the vahini, as a result.
After you look at these dreamscapes of Tahiti, you should sit back and think about what your ideal image of life is. What would you be doing? Where would you be? Who would be with you? What does that picture tell you about yourself?
Dream boldly . . . and recognize the opportunity to life your dreams as Adolphe Sylvain did!
Editorial Review:
Rediscover through Sylvains photographs, the spell binding natural sensuality of the Tahiti women and their beautiful enchanting island. Reminiscent of those who appeared beside Marlon Brando in 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. - 'Tahiti' follows in the footsteps of Madagascar, Tahiti, Tattoos and Equator. - This photographic work presented for the first time since his death,shows us his thoughts of Tahiti, at a time when it was almost unknown and confused with Hahiti or some other island, a vague literary association with Jean-Jaques Rousseau and his' Bon Sauvage' that was all. - Photographs that have a somewhat antiquated charm displaying that living assumes priority before anything else.
