MG – Yellow Flight (PRNewsfoto/Marjorie Goodson)
Marjorie Goodson says it’s okay to get older. And she’s proving it in a big way. Her 54-year-old dancer’s body is now the subject of a new coffee table book MG featuring 153 gallery-quality photos by acclaimed photographer Andreea Radutoiu.
Daughter of the late TV game-show creator Mark Goodson, Marjorie Goodson grew up traveling between New York and Beverly Hills. “It was always my second home.
She started studying ballet at age 4, and at 8 was in the School of American Ballet. She danced with the Hartford Ballet
School and is a founder of L.A.’s Barak Ballet. “This book is an extension of my love of ballet,” says Goodson. “Dancing has always been in my life.”
The genesis of the book began when at 49, as an “empty nester” with her daughter Hannah off to Georgetown, Goodson said, “now it’s my time” and determined to get back on pointe and in dancer shape. She threw herself into pilates, gyrotonics and jazz dance.
An artist herself, she’s been Marjorie Goodson in an Andreea Radutoiu photo from MG. painting seriously for 30 years, Goodson met Radutoiu and was impressed with her “edgy, high concept” work. Born in Romania, now L.A.-based, Radutoiu moved to the U.S in her teens in the midst of the Romanian revolution. She modeled in Paris, London, New York and Tokyo and then became a photographer.
Her work has appeared in Elle, Esquire and The Wall Street Journal. Having created a coffee table photography book on her daughter’s equestrian career, Goodson came up with the concept for her new book. Starting in Goodson’s Beverly Hills’ home, she and Radutoiu worked for three years creating MG’s photos set in L.A. and area locations.
“We wanted sites that were architectural, gritty and edgy, and graphically stark and clean like their studio shots. Incorporating earthy and textural elements like the beaches, water, rocks and sand was necessary for visual balance,”
Goodson says. Working closely with hair and makeup artist and creative director Torsten Witte and stylist Bobbie Sheets, Goodson came up with concepts for photos at Milk Studios, the Poodle Parlor warehouse, Zuma Beach and more. The shots in downtown L.A., with a metal gate, bridge and motorcycle, have a steely feel. Photographs at the sand dunes at Pismo Beach look like something from Mad Max (the photo shoot sets were designed by John Geary.) “I love using my body to express art,” says Goodson. “And I’m not a little girl, this is how I look. These are not retouched photos; they show an aging body working.”
After finishing all the photos and getting the prints, Goodson showed them to literary agent Mort Janklow who sent a sampling to RosettaBooks, which published the limited-edition book last month. It’s available on Amazon and eretailers. The last series of photos in the book have Goodson in a red Monique Lhuiller gown, running and posing in both the old Post Office and new modern sections of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, where the book launched with a benefit last month. Goodson also supports The Amanda Foundation and the Maple Counseling Center.
“I want to inspire women,” says Goodson. “You can achieve health, beauty, passion and confidence at any age. If you’re getting older, it doesn’t mean you’re getting old.”—Steve Simmons bhcourier.com
