“The photograph is part of the series A New Day, which in turn is part of my latest project centered on the theme of ‘beauty.’ In fact, all my personal work relates to the concept of ‘beauty.’ It might be still lifes, flowers, landscapes... Each series is an approach, a new blossom on the great tree I am working on.”
“This photograph is set in an imaginary beauty clinic for plastic surgery where you can have blossoms implanted—blossoms as a symbol of new life, spring, youth, and fertility. Its title is SB 32, 2006, after the way patients are identified in a hospital report. What makes the image unusual is that it features a flesh-and-blood model. Not everyone realizes that. Wrapped so completely in hospital bandages, she looks just like a doll. And yet you can see the expression in her body and face. I find that boundary between model and doll intriguing. This photograph, like the other photographs in A New Day, is a response to all the attention paid to, and our fascination with, cosmetic procedures. It is my response, and everyone is free to interpret it in their own way.”
Name: Marcel van der Vlugt (1957)
Location: Amsterdam
Info: www.marcelvandervlugt.com
