Pink Bazooka, Pop! Rat a Tat Tat Tat

Her work, continues Puleo “employs the visual syntax of editorial fashion and style photography”.  Prince Martin adds, the works “complicate, even usurp, desire by amplifying the contrivances of fashion photography to the level of the absurd” to explain her use of this otherwise commercialized syntax by offering that she is “interested in cultural positioning - the way we use signifiers to locate ourselves within society. As we navigate our daily lives we borrow freely from advertising, fashion, and fantasy.” Ultimately, she says, this method, “illustrates and visualizes the process of how we attempt to appear and present ourselves to others”.

“The work is more loyal to the id than the super-ego which, with its unrepressed drives, has less-than-stellar regard for morality and orderliness” Prince Martin explains. However, her process is quite the opposite:  The images are meticulously, painstakingly constructed. “I like the formality of my work and the perfection I’m going for” Prince Martin says. She found many of her subjects for this series on the street or in front of the grocery store, carefully matching characters with settings and, from those combinations, creating a narrative (even keeping files on interesting people she’s approached for future works).