{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1632617"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1632617/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NC9804/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NC9804/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2022NC9804","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2023NM7404","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1632617/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1632617","accessionNumber":"PH.395-2021","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Drop Scene (0X5A2494), 2020","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Paul Mpagi Sepuya is an American photographer and artist. His work highlights the constructed nature of photography and the performative space of the photographic studio. His pictures often take the form of portraiture, a medium through which he explores queerness, homoeroticism, and blackness. In 2004, Sepuya received a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and in 2016, he completed an MFA in Photography at UCLA. He has shot editorial features for I.D. magazine, Kaiserin Magazine and BUTT Magazine. He also participated in the re-emergence of queer zine culture in the 2000s with his celebrated zine series SHOOT, which has been sold internationally since its inception in 2005.  \r\n\r\nSepuya’s work is rooted in portraiture, storytelling, and homoerotic visual culture. He frequently features his friends, romantic partners, and himself in his photographs. His work shows a sustained interest in portraiture and the intimacy developed between the sitter and the photographer. Sepuya states on his practice: ‘My studio was private, but not a closed environment. Rather, it was a stage that I inhabited and opened to those around me.’  \r\n\r\n \r\n ","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mpagi Sepuya, Paul","id":"AUTH371444"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"x43821"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Pigment print","id":"x37883"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"African Diaspora","id":"THES48873"},{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2022NC9804","2023NM7404"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"315","id":"THES49535"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"17","box":"L"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2020","earliest":"2020-01-01","latest":"2020-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchase funded by the Photographs Acquisition Group","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1905","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"1270","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, 'Drop Scene (0X5A2494), 2020'","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Paul Mpagi Sepuya stages himself and his close friends to investigate the portrait studio as a site of performance and desire. At the centre of this composition, a camera records a tangle of bodies partially revealed by a pair of theatrically parted curtains. The artist, who lives and works in Los Angeles, describes photography as ‘a technology that produces for us images that wish to be seen. Photographs wouldn’t exist if we didn't desire them to, whether that desire comes from lust or curiosity.’","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["PH.395-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"395","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2021-06-09","availableToBook":false}}