Blick is a german-language daily newspaper in Switzerland. It is published in Zürich since 1959 by the communication group Ringier.
And one of the most popular section in the newspaper is the famous “Seite-1-Girl“, the Girl first page! In deed, it is one of the characteristics of the newspaper.
They choose a girl out of the public and she becomes the star of the day thanks to a sensual photo shooting. Girls can apply from all over Switzerland. They are chosen by the newspaper and they appear on the daily edition with several photos. Each time there is a different photographer and make up artist. The goal is to sublimate the girl in such a way that sometimes it is hard to recognize her. And that is the purpose of it. It plays on the myth of the Girl-next-door.
This legend or concept snow a timeless cultural and sexual stereotype. The girl next door evokes historically speaking the idea of “All-American-girls”. It indicates a kind of wholesome and unassuming femininity. It is the contrary of the Vamp of “femme fatale”. In literature, the first one who played on this idea, is for sure Thornton Wilder in his “Our Town” (1938) with the female character of Emily Webb. He won the Pulitzer price for this 3 act play. Much earlier, we could also quote Mark Twain and his “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and the character of Becky Thatcher.
The 40’s and the world war brought back the myth of the Girl-next-door with the American propaganda showing the girls waiting for the “boys” to come back from war. On this period of time we can point out Marilyn Monroe’s film called Love Nest in 1951 and more recently the role of Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) in Spider-Man.
Blick is surfing on this trend by starifying girls in the newspaper. The idea is to give you the feeling that you could meet these girls just around the corner, or in the subway or even at the super market. They are young, quite fit and the challenge is to choose nice girls but not the “top-model” type, so that you can really believe that you could meet them. And the photo shooting takes place in-doors with some minimal decoration. Everything is focused on the girl and the photographer work. Of course all the glam-clichés are revisited linking to the “pin-up” look and style. Each day there is a new girl and at the end of the month, the “girl of the month” is elected.
See here some examples:
Photographer: Shane Wilkinson
Style: Sevi Cakir
Photographer: Michael Mey
Styling: Sevi Cakir
If you want to know more about it, check the newspaper official website here:
www.blick.ch/life/stardestages
So the girl next door might be just around the corner then….
info sourced at Blick official website. All images are copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
