One of the most fascinating internet phenomenons of 2017 was the commotion, and high-test handwringing, around "Cat Person," a short story by Kristen Roupenian published in the New Yorker earlier this month. Depicting a series of bad dates and bad sex between a young woman and an older man, the details in the piece of fiction felt—especially in the context of the public discussion of power dynamics between men and women today—like a very real gut-punch. As much conversation and sub-conversation as Roupenian's story generated, there was almost as much talk about the photograph commissioned to illustrate the story. The Israeli-American photographer Elinor Carucci, in fact, worked with a real couple to create the indelible image.
2 January 2018
