Lori Blondeau
Lori writes to me and says she's doing a photo shoot with her partner Bradley called "The Lonely Squaw. It's going to be cold in her fun-fur bikini, and she can't decide whether to hold a drink in her hand or a birch-covered surf board. These images fill me will pure delight and joy. Her Cosmo-Squaw photo shoot, also done in collaboration with her partner, Bradley Leroq, shows her lips pouting, cleavage pushed out in a gutsy parody of Cosmo magazine. One of the headlines reads "How to get that Killer Bingo Face."
Cosmo-Squaw received a review that started the community talking about the issues it raised. Is it possible to reclaim the word "squaw"? Is this kind of parody a healing action, or does it cause more pain in the community? Lori's work gives us refreshing images which are poignantly funny. They are not made to sell us a product, (which Cosmo obviously is), but they poke fun at the magazine which uses cleavage to sell false hopes of a better lifestyle to all women. "This is a false Cosmopolitan Utopia", her piece says, an airbrushed, fals(i)efied image of a utopia that does not exist. Her piece celebrates the joy that does exist here and now, in spite of the painful histories entrenched in our words.