This year I took a peek at Photo L.A. and happened upon American photographer Elisabeth Sunday who's work took my breath away. She uses a large concave mirror to shoot these elegant images with no digital manipulation, she prints each piece herself in the darkroom.
Reflections on the modern world vs. one which is slowly dying but anthropologists study because in truth it is closer to ourselves than we often realize. In using the distorted reflection, Elisabeth references Narcissus and his tragic fate of falling in love with his own reflection, just as we can be accused of doing and dismissing other cultures as "primitive". In the end, it is really our own society we are staring at through the looking glass. I loved that she was documenting these tribes who's way of life is being threatened by the day. She captures them with such dignity and in a way which reminds me of the Renaissance Mannerist painters, with their sinuous, elongated lines.
Eschewing the luxuries of modern comforts, she travels to the ends of the Earth to chronicle by embedding herself within the tribes, following their customs and ultimately gaining their trust. Elisabeth is planning on creating sculptures based on some of these photographs in the next year.
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