The normal instincts at being seen naked have been lifted by the potential salvation of surgery*. These subjects are less connected emotionally to their old bodies; they are at this point partly living their new lives disassociated from the flesh around them.
For an increasing amount of us, our emotional state is expressed through our relationship with food and it inevitably shows. These people have become walking allegories of our own failings and we seem to despise them for it but they exist as a part of ourselves, they are in this moment representing what we could be or are; they are physical representations of our own emotional possibility.
*All the images in this series are taken days before gastric band or colon reduction surgery.
Richard Ansett’s images are in permanent and private collections including the National Portrait Galleries of London and Canada, Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Smithsonian. His images have been part of major collaborative exhibitions worldwide. His images have won the Arte Laguna Prize 2013 and Grand Prix de la Decouverte 2013 and received the gold award at Prix de la Photographie in 2011,
