Vee Speers, From The Birthday Party to Phoenix

In her iconic series The Birthday Party, Speers eternalizes the innocence of childhood with timeless portraits that are at once hauntingly beautiful and provocative. She dresses, styles and sometimes masks her characters, creating enigmatic stories to blur the line between reality and fiction and highlighting our need to escape into fantasy. Speers succeeds in choreographing characters that offer allegorical glimpses into life, triggering memories of our own childhood and exploring emotions which are part of an imperfect world.  

In her series Bulletproof, Speers photographs The Birthday Party children 6 years later. Each and every one, in their manner and  their costume, is invincible. Each and every one holds the reins, dictates the rules. Speers has already photographed this band of heroes and heroines, has already had them play roles, against the same grey wall when they were children. Since then, things have changed. Their bodies have taken shape, become bigger, stronger. There faces too, they have transformed and refined. Speers leads her characters toward imaginary realms, playgrounds and places where these characters will always remain, no matter what happens, armed and victorious.

From the legend of the Phoenix, Speers' latest series draws inspiration for this evocative story about powerful women. Poised as they reconcile their past, they are contemplative, melancholic yet defiant, turning towards the future as they reflect upon the ghost of their untold stories. Never afraid to push the boundaries, Speers takes us on an emotional journey with portraits and landscapes that are at once nostalgic and contemporary, hues faded, marking the passage of time. Scattered fragments are pieced together as the narrative unfolds, clothing is torn, soiled, burned and gazes are languid.

Yet the quest for recognition and renewed identity is resurrected through a shared vision, crossing frontiers with courage, strength and determination.  Like some kind of illusion that seems suspended in the memories of a dramatic event, hope rises like a phoenix from the ashes, forging a path in a brave new world. At once powerful and vulnerable, Speers’ portraits are timeless symbols of transformation between life and loss and the renaissance of a new identity. The women of Phoenix are styled against the backdrop of an imperfect world, empowered with strength and emotion.