A photo series

For oddher portraits (2016-2020), Valerie Reding used "disposable" materials that they found in trash dumps and in the streets of San Francisco to embody different personas and stage them in these surreal yet intimate self-portraits. As aesthetically pleasing and carefully conceived as they might appear at first glance, the pictures are the result of an intuitive and performative process, where the artist's body becomes a vessel, confronting their own vulnerability with the dystopian political and social realities that surround us, threatening our societies, the earth and all it's life forms. They envision vulnerability and destruction as bearing the potential for a new beginning, understanding that both are necessary vectors for creation, transformation and revolution.

photography & styling: Valerie Reding
assistance: Nico Dubosson