Body Clock: Polly Penrose’s nude self-portraits portray an emotional journey

Penrose’s posture is defensive in it, curled up into a foetal position, but while she looks vulnerable here, and she says she chooses these locations simply out of necessity and resourcefulness, there is something bold about her project. By taking over the physical space, she is literally putting herself in the picture, and by taking a traditional subject – the female nude – she is also taking control of that. Penrose is modest and unassuming, printing her images at just 10×12 inches for her exhibition, but she is also quietly subversive.

“Even though no one is ever going to see it, I’m putting my stamp on the place, creating a little bit of theatre that happens in a space where it shouldn’t,” she says. “People would have gone back the next day to the boardroom  and just used it and gone about their jobs, but that’s happened in the meantime – it has been a completely different environment for me, and I’ve seen it through my eyes and managed to fit myself into it somehow.” 

See more of Polly’s work here.

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Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is the editor of BJP, returning for a second stint on staff in 2023 - after 15 years on the team until 2019. As a freelancer, she has written for The Guardian, FT Weekend Magazine, Creative Review, Aperture, FOAM, Aesthetica and Apollo. She has also curated exhibitions for institutions such as The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. You can follow her on instagram @dismy