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August 4, 2008
This is an earlier body of work by Polly Borland in which she compassionately explores the little understood world of infantilism:
Polly Borland, untitled, from The Babies series, 2001
Borland had befriended several of the men who share a fetish for infantilism, embraced the role of helplessness and, as Susan Sontag points out, engaged in a kind of theatre.
Polly Borland, untitled, from The Babies series, 2001
Borland photographed around 35 adult babies. Many say that their fascination stems from an unhappy childhood. Sontag says that:
What goes on in these depressing rooms is a kind of theatre. Play- time. But entirely unfeigned. And without manipulation by the camera. Nothing is digitalised. Borland's project depends on the photographs being - as of old - a trace or imprint of the real. There is an implicit contract: these are people who really are (part of the time) like this; they aren't putting on a show for the photographer. Indeed, she had to spend long periods of time with them, win their confidence, become friends, in order to take these pictures.... The force of these pictures depends on our trusting the photographer that nothing was devised for the camera. That something is being revealed.
Borland is currently working on a series of eccentric faces from her local town of Brighton entitled Carousel.
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Gary,
The first pic seems to look like the men have chosen to be girl babies while the second has more blue outfits so I assume they are boy babies.
Is there a higher rate of the men choosing to be girl babies? Do you think being a girl baby adds to the vulnerability?
Do their mothers get involved or is it a secret thing usually?