Mary Willumsen’s photograph of women
Edith
Edith, her real name, was one of Mary’s favourite models! They collaborated on more than 35 poses and as you will see had a lot of fun doing them. Amazingly, seven glass negatives survive from their sessions that identify her and the images they made together. We also get the idea that women 'painting' their body is an age-old practice enjoyed in primitive and 'advanced' societies alike. It started as a little sign and ended up and down her legs!
Cornelia
Cornelia, on the other hand, might not be her real name but we thought it might have been. One of the consistent motives of Mary’s Helgoland images centered on women looking out beyond the restrictions of the walls of the bathing area. While one postcard is titled ‘Looking to the men’s department’ giving a ‘naughtier’ concept to the image. However, a deeper psychological interpretation could be that the women were looking to a world outside the restrictive environment to which they were currently confined. These were from a time when the women’s suffrage movement in Denmark was at its height and women won their campaign for voting rights in 1915.
Lilly
Lilly, our stage name for one of Mary's possible actress acquaintances. She has a look about her of someone used to striking a dramatic pose and we even made an animation from four of the images of her. Mary often took several variations of setups and often quite close to each other in style and position, insuring she had several good negatives of that situation. Gudrun sports the style indicative of a looser character: off-the-shoulder positioning of her undergarment and partially rolled-down stockings typical symbols from the time.
ROSA
“Rosa” is a beautiful woman. Hiding and showing at the same time! What a curious pose. What is she doing. Swimming? The exact focus on her renders the background so equally out-of-focus that it looks like a painted backdrop. A fake 'distance illusion' with a smaller version lounge at the converging lines at the vanishing point makes the illusion all the more believable.
4 Friends
Mary reminds us in this image of four 'Maids of the Mer', we come in all shapes and sizes. A group of girlfriends could ask Mary to memorialize them and it was up to them if it should be faces or backsides.
Helgoland Poster
Helgoland opened for the summer of 1885, named after the island in the North Sea. Winter bathing began in 1886. The first version of the bathing establishment was dragged to sea during an extreme winter in March 1896 and another construction replaced it. In 1913-4 Helgoland moved to its final location nearby, opening in 1915 to become the backdrop for Mary's images of women and girls. She continued her work there until 1920 when the police case against her began. Helgoland closed in 1932 due to unsanitary conditions in the bay. The nearby Øresundshospital drained their wastewater and sewage directly into the bay. Helgoland had a contract with the municipality of Copenhagen that all school children swam at Helgoland, in those very waters. The facility reopened on the contiguous island of Amager where the current version of Helgoland resides today.
Glyptotek Poster
Here is a reproduction of the original poster from the first-ever exhibition of her work in 1994. The exhibition was very well received, with over 35,000 visitors, due to extensive media coverage. We also have a limited number of original poster available if you collect posters.
Vore Damer
We have taken the liberty of rewriting history a little, mostly for decorative purposes. Vores Damer did publish some of Mary's photos, but did not name her as the artist. Here you can see how, if we had the possibility, a page of Mary's work might have appeared in color or an alternative in black and white.
Mary 2?
We call this model Mary because it is not 100% certain whether this is a self-portrait or another model. Mary Willumsen was so careful to hide the identity of her subjects and the series of this model is no exception. They line up closely with another series that seems to be Mary Willumsen herself based on an image where we see her face and another nude with the same scarf on the model's head. But, never the less, there is still a question mark after the name!
