Thursday, Nov 03, 2022

Read Full Article

Sun-bleached beaches, the bend of a knee, bubbles, shade … and sock puppets. This is the heady, often disorienting terrain of I Wash You Dry, New York-based stylist and photographer Katie Burnett’s second book of photographs. Rendered in black and white over 40 pages, the volume, published by Dashwood, is part of a limited edition of 750 copies. 

Burnett’s first book, Cabin Fever, ploughed a similar furrow – self-portraits in black and white created during the pandemic – but her latest work speaks to freedom and escape. It is no surprise that she started working on it during the tail-end of Covid-19. The title holds a clever double meaning that suits the contents perfectly: there’s definitely a hearty dose of the surreal in these pages and a sense that not everything is as it seems. Burnett uses her body as a motif – contorted, exposed and somehow untamed – as well as expansive vistas and homemade puppets. ...By Martha Alexander