Petra Collins is an artist, model and photographer who has risen to fame thanks to her dreamlike, internet aesthetic and thought-provoking work.
Collins dabbles with self-portraiture in her latest and perhaps most evocative work yet, ‘Why Be You, When You Can Be Me?’ The photo series is in collaboration with Baron Magazine, a publication that blurs the line between pornography and art, giving a nonchalance to the less lacklustre qualities of the erotic.
The series sees Collins turn the camera onto herself, offering us an insight into the inner workings of her mind. The work is eerie, perverse, confusing and unfiltered.
In an interview with Refinery29 Collins explained, “with this series I wanted to physically take my body and document how I felt about it: my sexual desires, my hatred and my confusion.”
Collins worked alongside sculptor Sarah Sitkin to create a second skin made from silicone, resin and latex which mirrors Collins’ and her sister’s body. The artist plays with the hyperreal replicas in an exploration of our relationship with our own image. This includes various face masks, severed feet, a removed breast plate and more.
Having struggled with body dysmorphia and eating disorders throughout her adolescence and young adulthood, Collins’ puts the lens on herself to confront any emerging fears that she has, “whether they’re violent or dysmorphic.”
The title asks “Why be you, when you can be me?” in reference to the slogan of a Canadian advertisement from the early 2000s.
“It’s these two girls who go into this shop that has all these machines they can step in, and then it turns them into this other person who’s perfect,” she explains. “It always freaked me out. It’s scary, but it’s also something I might have wanted.”
Collins draws inspiration from an unfinished photo series she began in 2013. The work documented the rise of the selfie with the changing technology of the time, and left Collins mesmerised by the complex nature of selfies. During a time where physical distortion and relentless editing of our images is the norm, Collins’ extremifies this to emphasise the danger and perversion associated with the practise.
In her must-see book, Collin’s blends horror with her childhood sexual fantasies. Inspired by places she has been; the series was captured in Toronto and in studios where she replicated her childhood bedroom.
Collins’ is one of the most intriguing photographers, creating conceptual work that explores the complex relationship between intention and perception.
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