[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist

New York: [circa early 1990s].

Price: $2,800.00

Hardcover. Three volumes. Spiral bound commercial photo albums. Two are large octavos, the third is a tall quarto. The albums contain approximately 150 snapshot photographs, mostly in color, but a few in black and white; most of the images are 5" by 7", a small amount are other sizes. Very minor wear, the photographs are fine (although technique was not the photographer's strong point, and many are obscured in the creation with flashes caused by the camera). There are a few pieces of ephemera laid in: rainbow and star decals, a clipping, etc. Almost every photograph is either a portrait or self-portrait of Coco, pseudonym of a French actress, the former Miss Luxembourg of 1964, the Mistress of Ceremonies at Trude Heller's (a Go-Go-era discotheque in Greenwich Village), and a self-professed exhibitionist. Despite a reasonably successful career in France as an actress, she achieved her greatest notoriety as a recurring guest making several appearances on *The Jerry Springer Show*, in the early days of its run.

The photographs are mostly of Coco scantily or sexily clad or partially nude, with outrageously big hair and aggressive make-up, and often taken by Coco herself in her bathroom or bedroom mirror, with a flash camera. At first glance they seem to languish at the level of banality, and for some they may remain exactly that, but others may see something more akin to performance art and the near-contemporaneous early photographs of Cindy Sherman. Other images include several of Coco on a television screen (probably all on *Jerry Springer*), a few from what looks like a decadent night club, one of a semi-nude dominatrix, and a few of Coco posed in a museum gallery and in an artist's studio. Also among the photographs are a few earlier images of her in her days as an actress and model, exhibiting a considerably more demure persona. A unique and interesting insight into a colorful New York character.


Item #411905

item image

Item #411905 [Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist. COCO, stage name of Michelle David.
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist
[Photo Albums]: Coco, French-Born Actress and Exhibitionist