The Arrogant 1935

Violet Keene Perinchief made this photographic print called 'The Arrogant'. It’s a theatrical image, and I bet a lot of thought went into it. I can imagine Perinchief staging it carefully, thinking about the set, the light, and the pose, which is pretty dramatic, right? The subject has got his arms crossed, and he's giving us this look, like he knows something we don't. I like the way Perinchief has used the light to give the figure this sheen, making him look almost godlike. I wonder if she was thinking about Greek or Roman sculpture when she made this. Or maybe she was just having some fun, playing with ideas about beauty and power. Photographers like Perinchief can teach painters so much about how light and shadow shape the way we see. And then, photographers can in turn learn so much from painting, where ideas are always being traded back and forth. It’s like one big ongoing conversation, you know?