Into the Lair of the Jaguar Princess

Abstract

One of the finest photographs of Jane during the early 1960s she called her “triumphant” or “joyous” pose. It was taken on the veldt outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Standing with her legs planted wide and her arms outstretched, Jane struck this pose several times in various places around the world. Ken suggested it as a way to make the picture more interesting: “Ken would always say, ‘ok, show a little action; let’s get some width to the picture.’ ” One’s eyes are drawn to her look of elation and to her unusual hat, which, it seems, made an impression in Nairobi as well: “[W]e stayed at a hotel owned by a very nice Greek fellow, Stelios Stylinianidis, who developed a bit of a ‘crush’ on me … we had flown over to Kenya from London, where I purchased that rather expensive hat—guess I thought it’d look good for photos on the veldt … after Stelios got to know us better, he said ‘Ya’ know, when you showed up at my hotel in that hat, I said to myself, now there’s a girl who either had very bad taste in choosing hats, or else she just doesn’t give a damn!!!’ Probably right on both accounts! He continually teased me about my hat, but I thought it looked rather fetching!!!”¹