This photograph is amazing due to the artifice involved. The photographer combines an Avon cologne bottle of a truck and camper and combines it with a paint by numbers painting as backdrop to form a vignette of classic Americana. The photographer combines two kitschy items from America’s not-so-distant past to make up this picture. Paint by number kits (which are still available) are noted more for the mild amount of enjoyment they give the painter; they are not famous for the art that is the result. Avon’s series of cologne bottles were avidly collected by Avon customers in the 1970s and then, after the cologne was gone, placed on shelves all over America as decorative objects. In hindsight, they were pretty awful, but perhaps what was worse was that we collected them and decorated our homes with them. This object combines the two into a splendid display of artifice. The photograph depicts a scene that could be real, could happen, and has happened countless times in our parks and campgrounds; but the photographer uses models that, through their sheer artificial nature, reveal how false the “camping experience” really is.
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