{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1794850"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1794850/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD7749/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PD7749/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PD7749","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2025PC8916","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1794850/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1794850","accessionNumber":"PH.5-2025","objectType":"photograph","titles":[{"title":"Sporta iela 2 k-1, 15.7.-12-9.2021, ZDZ, 2022","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Sophie Thun works primarily with techniques of analogue photography and its relationship to space, image production and circulation.  \r\n\r\nIn elaborately staged self-portraits, Thun uses her own body to question societal norms of gender, sex and the erotic. Influenced by fine art’s early representations of women and the self, Thun embraces the mise-en-abyme; an image within an image, to present a uniquely layered approach which challenges traditional self-portraiture and studio photography.  \r\n\r\nThun plays with the notion of public and private space, often photographing herself nude in locations determined by her work as a photographic assistant and in using tools readily available to her – a camera, a cable release and her own body. The addition of the cable-release further emphasises Thun’s approach by making the process completely autonomous and automated. Her portraits are then reworked and layered in the darkroom, with the frequent addition of photogram techniques which reference mark-making and early analogue experimentation. The notion of scale is important to Thun, and some of her photographs and photograms are rendered life sized by their camera-less techniques.\n\n'Sporta iela 2 k-1, 15.7.-12.9.2021, ZDZ' was created during a residency in Riga, where the artist worked in summer 2021. Her double portrait is produced by shooting two 8x10\" negatives with a cable release from a tripod, which is then cut and collaged in the darkroom. Using a foot pedal to activate the enlarger, the artist then exposes her hands to reveal a photogram layer. Double portraits are a frequent and reoccurring theme in Thun’s work, referencing the doppelgänger and myth of Narcissus, the Greek god who fell in love with his own image. Often Thun plays with the concept of self-love by creating double portraits of herself nude, or by styling her compositions into what looks like an intimate act with herself.  ","physicalDescription":"A black and white photograph of a studio with a pair of hands on either side. In the middle, a topless woman lies in the shot. The photograph looks cut on the diagonal. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Sophie Thun","id":"AUTH406730"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"baryta","id":"AAT127335"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gelatin silver","id":"AAT139114"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver gelatin print","categories":[{"text":"Women artists","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Women photographers","id":"THES380381"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2025PD7749","2025PC8916"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"DR","shelf":"28","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2022","earliest":"2022-01-01","latest":"2022-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"PH.4-2025","id":"O1788631"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Given by Phileas - The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, Vienna","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"40","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"30","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Sophie Thun, ‘Sporta iela 2 k-1, 15.7.-12-9.2021, ZDZ, 2022’, gelatin silver print on baryta paper in artist's frame.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage (V&A publication, spring 2026)\n\nSophie Thun’s use of analogue photography challenges traditional forms of self-portraiture and studio photography. In elaborately staged photographs, Thun uses her own body to question societal norms of gender, sex and the erotic. This double portrait is produced by using a cable release to shoot two 8  10 inch negatives, which are then cut and collaged in the darkroom. Using a foot pedal to activate the enlarger, the artist next exposes her hands to reveal a photogram and to create a ‘mise en abyme’ (an image within an image). Double portraits are a frequent and recurring theme in Thun’s work, referencing the doppelgänger and myth of Narcissus, the Greek god who fell in love with his own image. Thun plays with the concept of self-love by creating double portraits of herself in the nude, or by styling her compositions into what looks like an intimate act with herself.","date":{"text":"27/11/2025","earliest":"2025-11-27","latest":"2025-11-27"}}],"partNumbers":["PH.5-2025"],"accessionNumberNum":"5","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2025,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-27","recordCreationDate":"2025-01-21","availableToBook":false}}