Oh she was gorgeous - the American girl in Ruth Orkin's photo

In this week's gorgeousness, I propose a rather interesting girl in a rather arresting image. Ruth Orkin, an American photographer, took this photograph of a young American student named Jinx Allen in Florence, Italy in 1951. The photo was taken for an article in Cosmopolitan which discussed the problems women encountered when traveling alone... obviously the language, the currency, food and of course, dealing with men and their machismo abroad.

The photographer staged the scene to some extent, looking for a group of men lounging near or in Piazza della Repubblica. She claims she only spoke to the two men on the Vespa, asking them to tell the others not to look at the camera. The young subject walked the gauntlet not once, but twice!

And yet, although it was staged to some extent, there is something natural about this photo. The young, winsome girl, walking the gauntlet, her aggressors all smiling and laughing and her visible distress... There is a hint of a suffering yet beguiling Madonna. Or maybe I just had to much Asahi beer tonight.

Anyway, she redefined gorgeousness.