Elena Siretanu presents her photo series, Exploring the Female Form. 

With this series of photographs I wanted to portray a realistic, photoshop-free depiction of the female form and at the same time to call into question the line between intimacy and what is believed to be “graphic content”. Seeing these kinds of images can be initially a bit uncomfortable and intimidating because we’re so inundated with images of women being edited to perfection.

Discomfort is a natural part of the normalising process. I think it’s important to show women’s bodies in ways we aren’t used to seeing. I wanted to explore female sexuality and the ever-complicated issues of how it can be expressed (or muffled). The body image can be covered up, aestheticised, and trivialised.

As I was developing the photographs, I began to question my authority in the situation. I don’t believe I have the qualifications to talk about this issue, but it definitely made me think a lot about how far I can and should go with my photographs in terms of ethics. I think it depends a lot on the subject’s relation to the photographer as well. Personally, I look for moments where the person I’m photographing is less “on” for the camera. This collection of photos exists in a world for me where everything has a sort of aestheticised, classically feminine touch.