le lait miraculeux de la vierge

OK, so first off I am going to warn you that this picture is pretty freaky so I apologize to those who I have just offended/scared/turned on (haha just kidding...I hope...). Since I was at home all week, I decided to go to Barnes & Noble and a couple other local new/used bookstores to find a better selection. My main focus was to find books geared more toward fashion photography or portrait photography, but the selection was unfortunately not very vast. I did find a really cool book, however, by photographer Bettina Rheims called "Heroins." The photographs could be defined by a combination of obscure fashion, portrait, nude and borderline erotic. Either way, the photographs were beautiful but there was always a tone of underlying suffering. Maybe it had to do with the bleak backgrounds in each photo or the expression on the model's face...either way, the captured images were so strong yet had elements of vulnerability at the same time.

Anyway, I had a picture in mind that I wanted to post on the blog (a lot more tame then this one, I promise) and when I came home I google - imaged the picture, then Bettina Rheim's name because I was curious about her other photographs and her books. I found that a lot of her other work is way more erotic and even pornographic. Most of these works were on websites written in a language other than english, which I found amusing because, of course, the Europeans would be less uptight about these images than most Americans. When I came upon this picture, it struck me so profoundly that I had to put it up instead of my previously selected picture. The most information that I could find on it was that it is from a collection called "Le Lait Miraculeux de la Vierge" which I believe says something along the lines of "the miraculous milk of the virgin" (?) I am not exactly sure because I speak spanish, not french. I could find no information about the photograph in english. I would love to understand the title more deeply because I feel it would give me more of an idea as to what the picture is really about. However, my interpretation was less along the lines of religion and more along the lines of repressed women in the Middle East. I feel that it represents suppressed, even damaged femininity and I love the contrast and the conflict that is occurring between the covering on her head and her exposed breast.