The Bound #17

• Prize
  Bronze in Fine Art/Nudes
• Photographer
  Elizabeth Heyert

My latest project is about a subculture of people who allow themselves to be bound. In this photograph, a woman has entered a six foot balloon, a private, womb-like environment. I don’t see the works as being about a fetish however. The layers go deep, involving trust, vulnerability, safety, dependence, artistic and emotional need, and the very nature of intimacy. It’s more about the complexities of using the body and allowing the body to be used as a site of experimentation, meditation, and transformation. I shot the series in my studio, using 8 x 10 color and black and white film and a vintage Deardorff camera. The monumental scale black and white photographs are traditionally made gelatin silver prints, 47 x 60 inches (120 x 152 cm).