Mikael Owunna - Infinite Essence

Photo Awards -
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year

“Responding to images of police killings of Black people, since 2016 I have worked to articulate an alternative vision of the Black body as the incarnation of the eternal cosmos. Using my engineering background, I built a camera flash that only transmits ultraviolet light, and in each photoshoot I begin by hand painting my sitters’ nude bodies with fluorescent paints that glow under ultraviolet light. I click down on the shutter in total darkness, and for a fraction of a second their Black bodies illuminate as the universe, transfiguring the Black body into transcendent, ethereal vessels.”