SERIES · I TWELVE FRAMES · ZÜRICH · 2025
ἀναμόρφωσις

Anamorphosis

A series in twelve frames - on transformation, the patient violence of scissors, and the woman who arrives in the mirror afterwards.

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A NOTE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER

She came to me at the end of something. A friend first, a model second - that order has always mattered between us.

We talked for a long time. About what falls away when a chapter quietly closes. About the strange weight of staying still inside a body that has outgrown its current shape.

Almost in passing, I said it out loud: sometimes a haircut is enough. A new line at the jaw, a darker colour pulled through the roots - small, almost domestic acts, surprisingly capable of starting an anamorphosis. A rebirth of form.

The word stayed with us. We let it become a series.

I'm lucky enough to know a master hairdresser whose work leans editorial - almost theatrical. He agreed to be the third hand in the room, the one trusted with the scissors.

What follows is what unfolded that afternoon: the chair, the steam, the patient violence of the blades, the slow shift in posture that arrives when someone catches an unfamiliar version of themselves in the mirror and decides, very quietly, to keep her.

It is not a haircut story. It is the record of one woman stepping out of one form and into another - in real time, photographed by someone who has known her long enough to be allowed in the room.

The model standing in a revolving doorway, fully styled, dark bob, sharp blazer. PLATE · I
The hairdresser lifts her chin gently, her gaze meeting his. PLATE · II
She walks forward through the salon, jacket open, the hairdresser blurred behind her. PLATE · III
The dress crumpled at her feet, she stands nude, looking back over her shoulder. PLATE · IV

"The first cut is permission. Everything after it is just gravity."

Hair being washed at the basin - close on her face, hands working her scalp. PLATE · V
A towel turban; long painted nails resting on the chair. PLATE · VI
Topless with a towel wrapped high, mirrors doubling her in the soft background. PLATE · VII
Nude on the salon chair, towel turban, leg lifted, watching herself in the reflection. PLATE · VIII
The hairdresser's hand at the crown of her head, fixing the bangs into shape. PLATE · IX
Nude, eyes closed, hands at her temples in the doorway light. PLATE · X
Final frame - she stands nude in the doorway, looking back, fully arrived. PLATE · XI
ἀρχή

She left the salon a different tense of herself.

PHOTOGRAPHY
John
SUBJECT & MUSE
withheld by request
HAIR & DIRECTION
to be credited
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