BY: POLLY PENROSE
Over several years, Polly Penrose created a series of photographs entitled A Body of Work showing the physical journey of her body over time. Each portrait is a reaction of her naked body to its environment and a response of her mind to the current state of her body. On a yellow chair she reacts to her recent engagement, in another she is calm and balanced, glowing after the recent birth of her first child. Each photo becomes less aggressive, as she resides into the tender and soft grasp of motherhood.
This photo collection will never be finished she says, for each moment paints a unique portrait: “I want to keep taking the pictures until I can no longer move to do so.”
Each life experience causes a change in the body, which spurs an emotional fingerprint. The images cause us to reflect on the relationship between mind, body, and space, and the constant transaction of change between them. The photos bring to mind a powerful Greek proverb: “No woman ever steps into the same river twice.”