American artist Shelbi Schroeder makes photographs that have a sort of old world breathlessness to them. Her recent White series is made up of landscapes of pristine clouds, the subjects caught at the moment of snowy solitude and purity. Still others show the moment of sexual pleasure, where memories, rivers of time, a sense of other worldliness collide to become a moment of release and liberation. Explicitness has its place, I am no enemy of confrontational sexual imagery, however, we can look to a way of working wherein sensuality is all-consuming, yet not direct.

Nevertheless, I would add the Shelbi does not shy away from direct imagery entirely, her large-scale Instax project involved taking pictures of her nude body for an extended period of time, and asking a select group of participants to do the same.

Through this practice, she is confronted with the feminine bodily self, rather than being confronted with another’s idea of female sexuality and pleasure. These moments brought forth a transformation of her own vision of her true self, the role of desire and agency.  > Read More