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Jinx Staring at Statue, Florence

Artist Ruth Orkin (American, 1921 - 1985)

Date1951

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 9 5/8 × 6 3/8 in. (24.4 × 16.2 cm)
Overall, Support: 20 1/4 × 16 in. (51.4 × 40.6 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number2015.27.1

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a vintage gelatin silver print, 9 5/8 x 6 3/8 inches in size, printed on a glossy sheet of commercial photography paper. It is inscribed on the verso in graphite in the center: Ruth Orkin; and along the right side: 11 1/2 H–13194–8–4. In the verso lower right corner is written in graphite: 223.

Following a 1951 LIFE magazine assignment in Israel, Orkin visited Italy and produced a series titled “American Girl in Italy,” including this photo. In it we see a young woman standing next to Giambologna’s statue of The Rape of the Sabine Women (1579–83) in the Loggia dei Lanzi outside the Palazzo Vecchio on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. The woman holds an open tourist’s guidebook, pointing at its pages with her finger while staring at the statue with an open mouth, perhaps in surprise or disgust. The series was created by the artist in collaboration with art student Nina Lee Craig, who she met by chance in her Florence hotel. At Orkin’s suggestion, the pair staged a series of photos around Florence in which Nina, nicknamed “Jinx,” served as the model, playing the part of an innocent American traveler in typical tourist situations, all staged. The photographs were subsequently published as an essay entitled “Don’t Be Afraid to Travel Alone” in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Label TextRuth Orkin American, 1921–1985 Jinx Staring at Statue, Florence, 1951 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Although it may resemble a tourist’s snapshot, this staged photograph offers a commentary about women and how we look at them. Ruth Orkin created the image as part of a series that shows art student Nina Lee Craig, nicknamed Jinx, posing as a tourist in Florence, Italy. Later published in a Cosmopolitan article, the series shows Jinx reenacting her experiences as a lone woman traveler. Here Jinx, finger on the page of an open guidebook, stares up at Giambologna’s The Rape of the Sabine Women (1579–83). Her ambiguous expression may be a reaction to the depiction of sexual violence, but it also speaks to her awareness of other eyes looking at her as a foreigner and a woman. Museum purchase 2015.27.1