Contemporary Photography of Women: A Surreal Take on Female Beauty

Stephanie Hoppen Gallery's upcoming exhibition ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ will comprise four contempo- rary photographers' differing takes on the female form. Taking as its starting point Hendrik Kerstens's photo- graphs of his daughter, Paula, which reference Old Master's paintings, the exhibition will continue with the work of Dutch photographer Suzanne Jongmans, whose works investigate the transience of time through portraits of women adorned with 16th and 17th century costumes and photographed with painterly lighting. American artist Jamie Baldridge's surreally enhanced photography has a similar painterly quality that offers intriguing and unexplained fairy-tale images of women, while UK artist James Ostrer takes an unusual look at the pressures of perfection in his work with San Fran- cisco Ballet princial dancer Maria Kochetkova.

The works form an eclectic collection each investigating female beauty in a different light, be it through an obses- sion with the past or the striving for physical perfection through pain, or the surreal beauty of the unusual.

19th Feb- 13th March