In “Master Rituals II: Weston’s Nudes” I re-enact Edward Weston’s iconic nude studies as both the photographer and subject. As a woman of color, the insertion of my body into the white modernist canon of mid-century “masters” becomes a way for me to reclaim and re-write male-dominated history while challenging white standards of beauty. My titles include the full names of the women who modeled for Weston– many of them his lovers at the time of the shoot. This naming is a way to make visible the ways in which women have been erased from the canonical history of photography, while at the very same time the “anonymous” use of our bodies remains visible. All photographs are 8×10 Silver Gelatin Prints from 4×5 film. 

ー Tarrah Krajnak