Margaret M de Lange
Closeness when we are allowed into the most vulnerable.
As a photographer I have always had a deep interest in the intimate, the vulnerable, which is not on public display.
Throughout my career my subjects have been family, friends and acquaintances I have met who have been brave enough to expose themselves for my camera.
A picture comes about when I see something that I recognise in myself, so the photographs end up exposing both myself and the person in front of the lens. Perhaps that is why people have been so willing to share such private moments with me.
I am drawn to the darker, rawer aspects of life. Many of my pictures centre nudity and sexuality, but not in a way that invites objectification. What I aim to invoke is emotion rather than titillation, which is why my subjects are shown in raw and vulnerable states.
My use of black and white with high contrast, dark shadows and grain is also meant to invoke a slightly different space than a cleaner colour photo would. It takes it out of the physical world and into a darker, more emotional plane.