© Bastienne Schmidt.

Bastienne Schmidt uses self-portraits to explore female gender identity in popular culture. She photographs herself in the role of a “housewife,” challenging our visions of a domestic utopia by re-staging many disconcertingly familiar scenarios and circumstances. Working in her own home environment of Long Island, Schmidt explores suburban fragmentation and loneliness with the presentation of her housewife character as a wandering, rootless protagonist.

This exhibition was on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography in the fall of 2010 and is currently available as a traveling exhibition organized by SMP.  Her book “Home Stills” was recently released by Jovis Press. -courtesy Southeast Museum.

Related Stories in PDN: Bastienne Schmidt’s Home Stills

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All Photos © Kimiko Yoshida/ Courtesy of Paco Rabanne.  Painting (Maria Magdaleina by Titian). Self-Portrait, 2010

By diverting objects of everyday life and fashion accessories, fragments belonging to the haute couture, or to the history of art, Kimiko’s “Paintings” series transform the works of  Tiepolo, Watteau, Fragonard, Boucher, Rubens, Rembrandt, Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin, and Delacroix. Kimiko Yoshida recreates hairstyles or archaic masks she finds in museums and stages behind them her own disappearance. To see more of her work click here.

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