EDITOR’S NOTE: In Snap, we look at the power of a single photograph, chronicling stories about how both modern and historical images have been made.
Beneath red tinsel and in the dim glow of club lighting, six young couples kiss, each seemingly wrapped up in their own little worlds. The intimate scene feels like a film still out of time, decade unclear, as they close their eyes and hold one another in the retro wood interior.
For the photographer Andrea Martí, who staged the scene inside of a vintage London nightlife hotspot, the point was for her subjects to yearn.
The image comes from the series “Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny,” titled after the 2021 viral essay about desexed blockbuster movies led by increasingly perfect-looking leads.
“Everyone has beautiful bodies in the media, but we’re seeing all these hot people and there’s no tension here,” Martí said in a video call. “There’s no desire, yearning, anything.”
