Paul Mpagi Sepuya
There’s never one right spot to rest your gaze in a Paul Mpagi Sepuya photograph. Looking becomes a sort of wading, as you move through tableaux vivants of draped velvet, reaching arms, and scraps of other photos. But somehow all this depth presses together the instant Sepuya clicks the shutter, bringing the textured relations of his friends, lovers, and muses up close and true for one hot moment. Sometimes a studio mirror he uses to make work reflects back the camera and this instant of making — reminding you of what it’s like to have your picture made, what it’s like to tense up or wind down before a camera, because, for Sepuya, portraiture is more about relationship than anything else. […]
originally published in Contact Sheet 197, the annual for the Light Work Artist-in-Residence Program in Syracuse, NY.
all images courtesy of the artist and DOCUMENT
