Mrs. West’s Hats features 60 photographic self-portraits produced by Helen Couchman. The title refers to Couchman’s maternal grandmother, Mrs West (1909-1993). In the photographs Couchman, made up to look like a young woman of the austere 1940s or ’50s, is seen wearing a succession of her grandmother’s hats, as though acting out the 'role' of her own grandmother as she would have looked during that period. Couchman in effect plays three distinct characters here: herself, her grandmother and that of a generic fashion model from the 1950s. Mrs West was an important and influential figure for Couchman in her youth, and these photographs constitute a homage to her, but also involve mourning and melancholy. This deep personal connection to her deceased grandmother is foregrounded through the donning of what is an astonishing range of hats, 'the stars of the show' as Anthony Gorman calls them in the essay he has contributed to the book. 'As the example of Mrs West’s headgear shows'
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