Borrowing its title from the transgressive comedy film by John Waters, Pink Flamingos brings together unnerving photographic works that evoke narrative of voyeurism and psychosexual trauma.

A woman holds a knife, another one is topless, a strange and naked creature stare at us blankly, while a man dressed like a pimp is surrounded by young girls: subjects and characters are in turn threatening, menacing, provoking, alluring and seducing. There is something wrong and uneasy about these works, but it is not explicitly articulated. They have the cinematic appeal of secret fantasies, challenging our gaze, between voyeurism and active participation.

The works present stories already told or suggest plots about to unfold. They trigger our experience and memory, with a sense of uncanny that draws attention to both the artifice and the reality inherent to photography. Fencesit between fantasy and reality, the images insist on a close proximity between ‘fictional’ and ‘real’, in order to reveal the cracks of the medium, between fact and imagination; the personal narrative.

The works deal with photograph as a symbol rather than representation, by means of examining both the relationship between the photographer and the subject, and between the viewer and the subject. At the end, our response to these works tells us more about ourselves.

(Source: suite.co.nz)