Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s Photographs Focus on Friendship, Sex and Intimacy in the Space of His Studio (NSFW)

Brooklyn-based artist Paul Mpagi Sepuya specializes in portraiture. His work focuses on people in his life and has an air of casual familiarity which explores ideas of friendship, sex and intimacy. His project Studio Work deconstructs the “pleasures and burdens” of his practice. Best seen as an installation, the images focus on people and objects that were part of his studio space for an entire year. Sepuya’s minimal aesthetic gives the images a cool and detached feel, while the ease and confidence of his subjects infuse them with seduction and vulnerability. This simultaneous sense of feeling excluded while invited in creates a tension that toys with us, as the end result becomes a surprisingly intimate portrait of the artist himself.

This post was contributed by Guy Merrill, Art Director at Getty Images London.

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