Bill Durgin, Figure Studies

Bill Durgin’s incredible ‘Figure Studies’ series transcends traditional photography into sculpting a piece of art with one’s camera. The images are the result of complex arrangements of the body parts which require extreme flexibility and contortion by the model to achieve an “austere effect contortion.”

Often inspired by dance and performance, my work presents the figure in a discernable yet unfamiliar manner. I work with actors, dancers, and myself to choreograph a gesture within domestic architectural spaces. These uncanny bodies create almost sculptural shapes, and their postures are enhanced by physical distortion and erasure of superfluous appendages. We are never able to grasp the entire architectural surround only a fragment revealing the contorted figures in a silent relationship.