Julia Peirone’s works explore questions of identity and gender; girls and young women feature in her visual worlds. Her subjects move around a studio-like environment while she captures the in-between moments in photographic images. Peirone’s series present aspects of vulnerability, shame and sexuality in an era largely shaped by social media, which are exerting an increasing effect on the development of personal identity. Her artistic practice navigates the boundary between reality and fiction while questioning photography’s impact and how we recognize ourselves in it as a modern visual culture that encourages self-aggrandizement and an obsession with abstract beauty ideals.

In her new series Marilyn, Peirone asked girls to recreate the iconic look of Marilyn Monroe. Her camera became a mirror: in intimate moments, the models consciously or unconsciously probe how femininity (with the application of lipstick and mascara) can become a mask to hide behind or to exercise power.