«When Usdin first started taking self-portraits more than a decade ago, she lacked confidence in her work, and in herself, and often questioned her ability to convey what she wanted to express. So she placed herself at the centre of each frame, experimenting with lighting, composition and setting.
“I was trying a lot of things by myself because I didn’t feel certain enough about what I was creating to ask anyone for help,” she says. “I was too shy and I didn’t trust my own work, so I used a tripod and a shutter button with a long wire to take the photos. In fact, if you look carefully at my self-portrait with the lampshade, you can see the wire.”
Usdin considers herself more “plastician” than photographer, because creativity is really just a game – “a very passionate game”. She describes the composition of her images as a dance, where all things convene. “They are a choreography of the body and the objects that surround it – a mattress, a chair, a window. Everything is linked, and there are no empty spaces.”
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