Bombshell!

In the summer of 2021 Ethan James Green began to photograph his friends around New York—the model Connie Fleming, stylist Dara Allen, writer Devan Diez, and more among them. They piled hair high on their heads, dressed in lingerie, and crafted scenes all throughout the city. Green first shared a preview of this series in a zine of polaroids published by Dashwood Books in 2021, which was followed up earlier this year with a photo book by Baron Books. Now, the project culminates with an exhibition in New York. 

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On view now at Kapp Kapp, “Bombshell” presents a tender collection of portraits taken between 2021 and 2022 that reimagines the modern knockout. Outfitted in enormous wigs, corsets, and sky-high heels, Green’s models dangle from street lights, scowl smoking cigarettes, and hang over fire escapes. Rendered in a glossy sheen, they refuse to shrink. More than models, the photographer’s subjects are cultural tastemakers, many of whom are trans women. And in Green’s portraits, they both adopt and subvert visions of femininity: the result a perfect straddling—literally, in Devan, 2021, and Eugenia, 2022, in which the subjects wrap their legs around a metal beam and a tree trunk, respectively. 

That Green’s photographs are both dramatic and intimate is unsurprising. He has made a living out of his personal portraiture. The photographer’s black and white portraits are often starkly lit, and his subjects  have included the Olsen twins, Michael B. Jordan, Anthony Bourdain, and Green’s own mother. His bombshells, though, are the photographer at his most collaborative and uninhibited.

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Each woman performs a different definition of bombshell under Green’s lens. In Sam, 2021, photographer Sam Penn embodies a dreamlike nymph. In Martine, 2022, artist Martine Gutierrez projects a lurid siren. And in Hari, 2021, the actress and model Hari Nef is all tangled up. She lies on her back on the ground, half-dressed in ‘50s-era tights, lingerie, and pumps. Her hair is slicked in an updo, her face perfectly painted in make-up, and her gaze steady. Body contorted, Nef looks softly at the camera, as if she is greeting her guest like any good host: “Hello, welcome in.” In doing so, she emulates the role of housewife and socialite akin to twentieth-century society queen Babe Paley. In another portrait of Nef, also titled Hari, 2021, she whips around in her underwear. Not only is she a sophisticated woman, but she is also a playful girl. Green’s subjects are not one-dimensional iconic symbols of beauty—the personas they embody are complex, lived in. 

Even in the show’s most minimal compositions, including two photos titled Gabriella, 2022, a duality exists. In the first, fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson stands nude against a simple black drape. She is elegantly undone: Her hair is a teased mass, her arms cradle her breasts, and she looks demurely at her viewer. Still, her soft expression is commanding and sophisticated. In the next, she has taken a seat on the ground. She’s dressed in a little plunging dress and wears simple, black stilettos. Her freshly done hair blows in every direction. A sultry, sexy vision, she maintains her vulnerability.

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The idea of the bombshell has been long tied up with a narrow notion of ideal femininity, one that is labored over in public and private spheres, and one that caters to the straight, male gaze. Sex sells, but the girls and dolls behind the scenes know the trope is hard to realize. The photographer’s depictions of his friends poke fun at, celebrate, and expand accepted tenants of womanhood. Green’s muses are in control: They unfold in front of his lens, glamorous and with a wink. They know how they intend to be perceived. With every photograph, Green makes a case for a new guard of bombshells, ones who write their own rules.

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‍"Bombshell" is on view at Kapp Kapp Gallery throughOctober 26, 2024 at 86 Walker Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10013.