Tennis girl

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Tennis girl
Martin Elliott , 1970s

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

Tennis Girl ( German  "Tennis Girl" ) is a photograph by the British photographer Martin Elliott. It shows a womanfrom behindon a tennis court , who exposes her bare buttocks by lifting her tennisclothes. The photo has been sold millions of times as posters since the late 1970s and has been adapted and parodied several times.

description

In the photo you can see a blonde woman with shoulder-length hair on a tennis court. She is pictured from behind and seems to be walking towards the net. The toe of the woman's right foot has touched the ground, which gives the impression that she is taking a step forward. The left foot lies flat on the floor. In her right hand she holds a tennis racket pointing towards the ground . With her left hand she pushes up her short white tennis dress, exposing her bare buttocks, showing that she is not wearing any underwear . Trees can be seen in the background and four tennis balls lie on the ground. The sunlight comes from the top left, which can be seen in the shadow of the woman and the light in the top left corner of the photo.

Creation and publication

According to photographer Martin Elliott, the photo was taken in the summer of 1976 on the tennis court of the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The woman in the photo is said to be his then 18-year-old girlfriend Fiona Walker, who also confirmed this in 1989. But there are doubts about this representation. In 2015, Cornwall-based Peter Atkinson claimed that the woman was his ex-wife who wanted to remain anonymous. She was Elliott's tennis instructor when she posed for the photo in 1972. As evidence of an earlier origin of the photo, Atkinson presented a postcard stamped 1974 and a calendar from 1974 showing the photo.

In 1977, Elliot sold the image rights to the photo to British retail company Athena, which printed it on posters that sold more than two million copies.

reception

The great popularity that Tennis Girl achieved ensured that it was often adapted. In 2000, for example, a photo appeared on the cover of GQ in which Australian singer Kylie Minogue recreated the scene from Tennis Girl . British actress Alice Barry spoofed the photo for a Comic Relief charity event . Australian tennis player Pat Cash and British comedian Alan Carr also parodied the photo. When a replica of the 2017 photo appeared on the cover of French Tennis Magazine with the headline “Le tennis se met à nu” (German for example: “Tennis takes off”), various critics accused the magazine of sexism . One of the reasons for this was the very low number of covers of the magazine that featured women.

The photo was also used in advertising. The tennis simulation Davis Cup World Tour , which can be played on the Sega Mega Drive game console, was advertised with a new version of the photo. An internet casino recreated the photo with an elderly woman to advertise a possible win of tickets for a tennis tournament with former professional players. In the Wii game Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party from Ubisoft , the scene is recreated with an animated female rabbit.

In 2011 the photo was shown at an exhibition in Birmingham dedicated to the representation of tennis in art. In the same year, British sculptor Ben Dearney made a life-size sculpture of the woman in the photo, made of fiberglass covered with gold . Fiona Walker made herself available as a model. British photographer Mike Stimpson, who recreates famous photos with Lego figures, dedicated one of his adaptations to the tennis girl . In 2015, street artist Unify painted a graffiti version of the photo for the library at Wimbledon . Instead of a tennis racket, the woman with him carries a paint roller soaked in neon yellow paint .

The tennis dress allegedly worn by Fiona Walker during the 1976 photo shoot went up for £ 15,500 at auction in 2014. The buyer was the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club , which has since exhibited it at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tennis Girl model revealed. In: BBC website . March 23, 2011, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Rebecca Perring: Man claims real star of iconic Athena 'Tennis Girl' poster is his EX-WIFE. In: Daily Express . February 24, 2015, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Chris Johnston: Athena 'tennis girl' poster dress sells for £ 15,500 at auction. In: The Guardian . July 5, 2014, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Ekow Eshun: Cheeky! In: The Guardian. June 8, 2000, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Jimmy Nsubuga: Shameless Alice Barry recreates a famous tennis pose for Sport Relief. In: Metro. February 2, 2012, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Athena Tennis Girl poster dress up for auction. In: BBC website. June 26, 2014, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  7. ^ Leo Benedictus: New balls. In: The Guardian. September 9, 2006, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Fesses en une: "Tennis Magazine" accusé de sexisme. In: L'Obs . August 12, 2017, accessed on July 28, 2019 (French).
  9. ↑ Edward Hyman: Take Advantage with Sega - Perverted Ad or Innocent Parody? (NSFW). In: Game Dummy. January 5, 2015, archived from the original ; accessed on July 27, 2019 (English).
  10. ↑ Natasha Culzac: Iconic 'Tennis Girl' dress up for auction with racket and the poster that made it famous. In: The Independent . June 27, 2014, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Nicole Lange: A bare Rabbid bottom for everyone. In: Derwesten.de . July 4, 2008, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Mark Brown: Athena Tennis Girl makes cheeky comeback - in the name of art. In: The Guardian. March 22, 2011, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Tennis girl pin up is immortalized in life-size sculpture. In: Daily Mail . July 23, 2011, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  14. ^ Hannah Hiles: New Birmingham show recreates iconic images in Lego. In: BirminghamLive. October 23, 2013, accessed on July 27, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Helen Le Caplain: Wimbledon 2015: Graffiti guru pays homage to cheeky Athena Tennis Girl in latest 'Banksy-style' work. In: swlondoner.co.uk. June 25, 2015, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Wimbledon museum to display famous Tennis Girl dress. In: BBC website. March 26, 2015, accessed July 27, 2019 .