“Every square millimetre of my images are digitally manipulated. Not just the skin tones, but also the facial features themselves. In some cases I combined features from several faces to obtain what I had pictured in my mind's eye. Xteriors being the first project where I became serious about digital manipulation, it took me a good three years to finish all the images.”

DESIREE DOLRON

In the series Xteriors, Dutch artist Desiree Dolron has created a body of work that is rich in historical reference and yet completely of this time. Shot in an 18th-century mansion in Utrecht with models clad in specially designed, historical-replica dress, she constructs a narrative foundation which she then builds upon using expert digital technique. As seen in the current lot, the result is a rendering of light and shade that immediately calls forth the Flemish Primitives who have so clearly influenced her approach – the de-saturated palette and the glacial atmosphere exude a sense of melancholy that is both enigmatic and impenetrable. Dolron crafts an image that completely surpasses our visual expectations and challenges our understanding of photography as a medium.