V.W. Verena Winkelmann 1998-2000 is a book comprised of photographs the artist made of herself at the beginning of her studies. The photographs were made in black and white and color, and have been reproduced with attention to the geist of their making — a young artist working across media and through several approaches to photographic self-portraiture.
The project was made primarily during a period when Winkelmann was forced to stay inside because of a health situation. Photography became a voice, a dialogue, a method to investigate how the body could fill an image and at the same time tell a story about a condition.
The photographs reveal an artist acting for the camera, through a process of playing with their sexuality, pushing the boundaries of what is private in order to see themselves from the outside. The photographs challenge their condition as images — images being viewed — and our mediated understanding of the body.
Responding to the canon of female artists employing self-portraiture, the project has renewed relevance in the era of the selfie. It also serves as a prequel to Winkelmann’s recent projects, which continue to study the simultaneous vulnerability and vulgarity of the body.
