Great Dames

ERIC BOMAN'S WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE AND STYLE

FANFAIR

'Botanically speaking," says photographer Eric Boman, "a dame is on the other end of the scale from the shrinking violet." And he should know: between stints as a fashion, garden, and interiors photographer, Boman has been capturing the likenesses of accomplished women for nearly three decades. In Dames (Vendome), his aptly named first published collection of portraits, Boman's subjects are found doing, or not doing, things in their natural habitat—stretched out on sofas (Alba Clemente and Ines de la Fressange), striding across closely cropped lawns (Carolyne Roehm), arranging flowers (Barbara de Kwiatkowski), and, as is destiny for some, feeding chickens in a taffeta ball gown (Sandy Pittman). These women are not the product of a stylist's imagination, though many appear to be facing into a headwind of hair spray. Of Barbara Walters, Boman says, she's "not someone you can push around too much." And there's Dewi Sukarno, wife of the Indonesian strongman, who "has one expression she likes, so she gives it to you all the time." Being a photographer has allowed Boman, born in Sweden, to explore widely—"I wanted to be a small fish in a big pond because the swimming is so much better," he explains. And dames hold a special fascination for men who are not interested in them romantically. For those who are, he points out, they "can be quite a handful."

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