{"id":269932,"date":"2025-11-08T12:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/269932\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T12:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:18:14","slug":"gerwyn-davies-vivid-costumed-photographs-toy-with-the-intent-of-portraiture-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/269932\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerwyn Davies’ Vivid Costumed Photographs Toy with the Intent of Portraiture \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Set against glowing backdrops of desert, city skylines, skate parks, and anonymous interiors, Gerwyn Davies<\/a>\u2019 vibrant photographs merge fashion photography with elaborate and sometimes bizarre handmade costumes. His practice harkens back to some of his first experiments with photography, when he and a group of friends would stage collaborative portraits in which they\u2019d take turns operating the camera, posing, and searching the house for lamps to light the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Vogue magazine on a B-horror film budget,\u201d Davies says. \u201cI was transfixed by the potential to fabricate fantasy through photography and from that point I was very excited about what else I could do with it.\u201d He credits those early, playful experiments with his continued fascination with readymades and a highly constructed approach to making a photo.<\/p>\n

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Davies describes his practice as \u201cqueer photographic self-representation.\u201d He designs and creates the costumes himself, transforming the human figure into a sculptural form. Sometimes garments envelop his entire body, but even if his legs or arms are visible, the head is always obscured. When he takes the photo, Davies works blind, snapping a sequence of automatic shots while he quickly performs for the camera. From these, he later selects a final image.<\/p>\n

Whether made of sequined fabric, vinyl, or faux fur, Davies\u2019 costumes border on the quirky, humorous, and even absurd, as he explores the fluid relationship between fantasy and reality. He also plays with notions of what portrait photography is\u2014or it\u2019s intended to reveal about the sitter. In this case, \u201cthe subject, which is always me, is conspicuous in the frame,\u201d the artist says, but the nature of concealment adds a playful, sometimes slightly unsettling layer of complexity. He continues: <\/p>\n

The use of elaborate costumes, often fabricated with shimmering and sparkling materials, makes the subject almost hyper-visible. At the same time however, the specifics of the subject are unable to be seen. The face is always obstructed by fabric and the precise dimensions of the figure wildly distort, meaning the subject is impossible to take in fully\u2026the subject is both there and not there, seen and unseen, they are hidden in plain sight.<\/p>\n

Davies\u2019 work is featured in Exposure:\u00a0Contemporary\u00a0Photographers in Australia and New Zealand<\/a>, and you can find more on his website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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