BATHTUB PORTRAITS VOL. 1
Iconic + Intimate Images
It’s 2013, and a wet and bronzy Kate Moss takes up the cover of Love Magazine. Photographed by the iconic fashion photography duo Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Moss lies poised in a shimmering bath-bomb-blue bathtub, her red lipstick popping, her grey muscle tank top clinging, and her contoured cheeks cutting deep — all of it a languid sign of the times when maximalist makeup was queen and self-care meant running a hot bath.
Jessica Chastain, Ellen von Unwerth, GQ UK, January 2013
Georgia bathtub. Vincent Peters, 2019
The bathtub is a portal to different worlds. It’s a simple object that sits in most households, yet within its four porcelain walls lie the promise of many possible foamy encounters and experiences. Time in the bathtub can be cleansing, sensual, secretive, classy, replenishing, playful, decadent, or healing. The possibilities are endless. Under a mountain of bubbles, it’s silly. Fully clothed, it’s spectacular. With a friend or lover, it’s a party.
Tupac, David LaChapelle, 1996
Regine Jaffrey, Helmut Newton, 1973
For artists, the bathtub is a creative’s wet dream. Photographers like Ellen Von Unwerth, Annie Leibowitz, and Bruce Weber come back to it again and again, capturing celebrities like Rihanna, Matt Damon, and Kourtney Kardashian in soapy repose. In one 1996 David LaChapelle image titled Becoming Clean, Tupac sits in a tub beneath a cloak and hood of bubbles. His thickly outlined ‘Thug Life’ tattoo sits front and center, diminished only by a smudge of creamy body wash. Recently released from prison and months before his untimely passing, Tupac seems to wash away his troubles with a cheeky ease, sporting an air of bold naivety worn only by those in their 20s.
Rhianna, Vogue 2022. Photography by Annie Leibowitz
Willis and Sean, Bruce Weber, 1987
While, naturally, plenty of bathtub portraits are packed with sensuality — patches of bubbles barely covering lithe body parts — the nudity in many images often dips toward something softer and more vulnerable. Cradled by warm water and stripped bare, subjects assume a nostalgic, childlike demeanor. Bathed in hazy bathroom light, the model seems to beckon and invite others into this warm, auspicious, and magical watery world.
