Horses Think

Untitled XXIII, by Polly Borland

Bunny, a new series of photographs by Polly Borland is definitely worth a look.

Untitled II, by Polly Borland

Her enigmatic, strange, and humorous photographs of an extremely tall woman named Gwen explore intimacy, femininity, beauty and a whole lot more.

Untitled III, by Polly Borland

This girl was a total stranger, who I’d seen walking around Brighton for a while in 2003. She was extremely tall and captivating in her style, like a 1950s starlet. One day, it just came to me that I should be taking photos of her. So I found out that she was called Gwen and where she worked, and marched in there and gave her my phone number. Then she rang me and said she’d like to be involved, so we started taking the photographs.

At first it was going to be a Bunny Yeager-style pin-up shot. But it evolved into me dressing her up in weird costumes to do with femininity and female representation. She was very theatrical in the way she presented herself, and it just seemed to naturally develop. As this was going on, Gwen and I formed a deep friendship as well.

In her bedroom, I got her dressed in ballet tights, and then drew the face. The eyes are lipstick, and the mouth is eyeliner; I think we used socks to fill the ears out. I wanted it to look very homemade. I don’t know where the idea of putting the tights on her arms and head came from.

As we were shooting, she was doing different positions and different poses, and then all of a sudden she leaned over just like that. We’d been taking photos at this point for six months, and this was the launch of the real work.

The image has a snapshot feel to it, which I love. A lot of my work is very controlled, but this was just a moment. It also evokes a lot of different things. It’s quite sinister, quite gritty, and the ears almost look like they could be extra legs, so it’s not easily digestible. I think it makes you question things. That is what I want from a photograph.

-Polly Borland talking to the Guardian about Untitled III (above)

Untitled V, by Polly Borland

The colorful and saturated photographs remind me of Guy Bourdin mixed with a little Matthew Barney.

Untitled I, by Polly Borland

Some of you might know Polly’s work from an earlier project called The Babies, also worth a look.

If you live in London or just visiting, you are in luck as Bunny is on exhibit at Michael Hoppen Contemporary through August 16th.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.