Samuel Masters for Art-Sheep
Philip Toledano, a British photographer currently based in New York, has been known for tackling a variety of intriguing issues in his photographic series, from phone sex professionals and their lives to extreme cosmetic surgery, always from a very creative and gentle perspective. In his series “Hope & Fear”, the artist contemplates on Western civilization’s fears, obsessions and weaknesses. Toledano’s pictures feature individuals in elaborate costumes, made of heap of the same iconic and symbolic object, demonstrating the issue to be examined, such as a skirt created from Barbie doll legs to express females’ anxieties concerning their bodies.
What is even more impressive is that the series’ photographs were not created digitally, through photoshop, but instead captured with the use of actual props crafted for the photo shoot. Characteristically, Toledano states about his work, “Hope & Fear is the external manifestation of internal desires and paranoia that are adrift in contemporary American society. What are we afraid of? What do we love? How does our society function, and what does it worship?”
