Katie Montague- Baring

“While maintaining focus of anonymity, Baring plunges straight into the (often) dark realm of self-image. Where one may see only a nude figure, the artist is urging you to delve deeper. Not only into the photographs, but also inwardly to your own demons.

By disassociating the models with their names, faces, and histories you are forced to take a human body for exactly what it is… unique and beautiful. Judgment and hatred are not welcome, for these things are not instinctual – they are learned.

So tonight, in a grand display of rebellion against these aberrant things that we have been taught, I urge you to not dwell on superficiality. Instead, dawdle around the photograph that reminds you the most of your own body and think about how hard you’ve been on yourself.”

-Sentiments by Kelsey Faye Pack

Going into this project, I ultimately fell in love with how perfect the subject matter is for statuesque form. The lines of the legs and the natural curves of the body so delicately shape a seamless structure of anatomy; it’s hard not to stand in awe of such beauty, such natural conformation of lines and form. The bodies invoke a sense of beauty not unlike that seen in the marble creations of Grecian times, and are at times reminiscent of Renaissance-like paintings.

When we think of the human body, we think of the rules that we as a society have applied to it. The status quo is perfection, when in reality our most natural form is the purest form. Each frame in this series is reminiscent of its subject body: scarred, rugged, and unique in its own way. The frames were selected with the desire to further embrace the philosophy of the individuality versus the absolute.

-Saja Montague

Instagram: @sajakaytea