Breakfast At Tiffany's Photography Essay

In 1961, the classic film Breakfast at Tiffany’s hit cinemas across the nation. Loosely based on the Truman Capote novel of the same name, Tiffany’s starred Audrey Hepburn in what was widely considered to be her defining role, the unorthodox, free-spirited socialite Holly Golightly. Bud Fraker was hired to document the film via photography, during which he snapped a film portrait of Hepburn as Golightly, in her chignon updo, trademark little black dress, with an overlong cigarette holder in hand. This shot became one of the most widely recognized pictures of Hepburn, as a quintessential representation of Golightly and the character’s status as an icon of 20th century cinema. The photo’s intent, as well as the composition and contextual significance of its subject, can be compared to the veristic Roman portraits of the first century BCE. With that …show more content…
These works attempted to convey the subject’s “civic distinction” via the use of verism. Veristic portraits utilized and even sometimes emphasized physical characteristics like receding hairlines, wrinkles, warts, and missing teeth. Pained, scowling expressions were common. These aesthetic flaws were intended to convey a message about highly valued traits and conducts within Roman society that the subject of the portrait was said to possess – popular topics included wisdom, experience, and longtime loyalty to one’s state. A surly demeanor expressed emotional pain over a society ravaged by war. One sculpture features its subject holding busts of his ancestors, a shining example of ancestral devotion. This new obsession with verisimilitude was a far cry from the highly idealized, visually pleasing sculptures from Greek