Wednesday 21 March 2012

What's in a kiss?

CUE SOPPY POST
So today I've had a day off, and stayed at home due to my near-fatal strain of man-flu I have contracted. Being confined pretty much to my room alone, I started flicking through coffee table photography books, and I rediscovered a photo that I have always loved.

The Kiss at the City Hall, by Robert Doisneau
This photo has always held a kind of fascination to me. I know it was staged, but it somehow doesn't matter - the way the man just takes the woman for an impromptu, spontaneous kiss... to me, this is just absolute definition of romance. Call me old-fashioned, but this is how it should be.
So I started looking at some more Doisneau photographs. He took lots of photos of couples kissing in Paris (some might say cliche,) but they proved to be incredibly popular. Just what is it about a kiss that fascinates us so intensely? 



The blurred people in the background on this are lovely - the shutter speed must have been so slow!

They even hold an almost sacred place in films - for what would Spiderman be without MJ's upside-downy kiss, or Lady and the Tramp without the spaghetti shenanigans? I put together a wee shortlist of the best kisses in film (not exhaustive.)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
A kiss in the rain never fails. Definite brownie points for that trench coat, too.

Spiderman (2002)
Well, it solved the "where do I put my nose?" question. If you have a big nose. Like me.

The Notebook (2004)
I'm a girl, ok? I'm allowed to like this. I'm allowed to like a muscular, sodden Ryan Gosling holding his childhood sweetheart in the rain. I am.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
Yay! Elf love!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Everyone knew it was coming. Everyone knew it would be awkward. It did not disappoint!

Whilst searching for the pictures, I came across a series of photos taken by a photographer in Central Park... I'll let you fill in the gaps yourselves.




That's the money shot, right there.



Oh, God. Am I going all soft?! What a worrying prospect.
Mx


3 comments:

  1. A kiss is so fascinating because it has always been considered magical and a sign of love. Just look at fairytales - they all end with a magical kiss (especially Sleeping Beauty).

    Fuck you and your softness. Your softness is making me soft too.

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  2. Ah, Aleks, a real-life reader (:
    Well, Walt Disney has clearly never experienced the horrendous, teeth-clashing, eel-tongued scenarios that I have. A magical sign of love? Tell that to Fish Lips.

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  3. just wanna to be proposed here in central park :)

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