Talia Shipman

Stripped

Photographs by Talia Shipman

When humans are born, we are naked, unknowing, innocent, and vulnerable to our environment. In the face of our anonymity, we develop a second skin through body language and style to express our individuality. When we are stripped, we have only ourselves.

This series is based on my experience of the loss of identity through urbanization. Differing from the traditional portrait that uses facial expression, every portrait in Stripped is faceless; just one of many figures we pass on the street, with our heads to the ground, consumed in our own lives. Juxtaposing the organic human body against the cold man made backgrounds of steel, wood, concrete, and graffiti, all shots are taken in back alleys in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Talia Shipman was born in a barnyard with owls and sharks alike. She enjoys the hot sun whenever it is available and can be found contorted into various yogic poses until sunset, at which time she likes to watch the sky turn various shades of pastel, while eating copious amounts of sushi. At night she prowls the alleys for photo opts, tip toeing through magical lands and conversationing with the kitty cats. Oh ya, she likes to take photos. Often times her photographs question the human condition within the context of identity; and sometimes they don’t. She uses different media and size to draw and lure her audience deep inside the depths of her conceptual imagery. Regardless, it always looks really damn good. Meow.

www.taliashipman.com