Julia Peirone b. 1973

Virtual reality and the image-culture of social media distort reality, tend toward selfglorification, and lead to an abstract obsession with beauty. In her photography, Julia Peirone focuses on these notions in order to explore young teenagers’ search for identity. In her series, Peirone focuses on young women in search of themselves and their sexuality who are confronted by feelings of shame and vulnerability.

Through her photographic work at castings, Julia Peroine captures the frustration that young women suffer after having been imprinted by certain ideals. These are not ordinary portraits, because she focuses on the extreme demands of such castings and invites the viewer to question the subtle codes that lie within.

“My work starts from something banal, some little picture that comes to me. I think about how I can photograph it in different ways. […] So I started to take photos of it. Then even more questions arose, and I started to explore issues like shame, sexuality, failure and the surface image. The different series blend into each other. One series gives rise to another” (Julia Peirone, from the exhibition catalogue “Girls, Girls, Girls”, Göteborg Konstmuseum, 2017)

The way people appear in Peirone’s work is ambiguous, depending on how you look at it. Julia Peirone: “The girls I take pictures of are victims of gaze, but they’re also strong and have power over your gaze.”