This photographic series is part of the “Body Print” work which has unfolded during the past 3 years. I work together with a photographer each time; the first portraits were by Kudzai King, and when he moved to the USA then Arthur Dlamini joined me in the studio.
The photographs of the subjects’ follow the initial process of applying paint to their bodies and taking prints of these marks. Their skin carries the drops and remnants of paint from that process. For their photographs we keep their identities hidden with a paper papier-mâché animal mask, partly for their own privacy, but also to veil their identity, forcing the viewer to suspend partial judgement of the cues usually read in peoples’ faces.
The series began slowly, but as the collection has grown the list of volunteers has grown faster, and one wall of the studio is a constantly changing exhibition of the prints and photographs, drawing attention, questions and discussion from visitors around gender identity, social status, age, toxic masculinity, body image, personal freedom of expression and other issues.
The photographs are limited to editions of 8.
