The World As Seen By Him

Flagg renders the Eastern Hemisphere as a double image: a standard cartographic globe—latitude and longitude ruled, labeled North Pole to South Pole, with Europe, Africa, and Asia filled in solid black ink—simultaneously resolves into the profile of a young woman in three-quarter view, her hair forming the northern landmasses, her face occupying the Indian Ocean. The trick is entirely compositional; no caption survives in this cropping beyond Flagg's own signature. The world is literally remade as a woman's face for the observer, with 'Scale of Smiles' appearing at the lower left. The joke is romantic solipsism dressed as geography—the globe remade by infatuation.