Looking at Wallspace photographers this week

Lydia Panas lives on a farm in Pennsylvania, but her work has become an international phemomenon. Just this year, she has exhibitions in Poland, Italy, Germany, and China, many in the U.S., and her work has appeared in just about every major publication, including The New York Times and PDN. Her masterful psychological portraits, captured with a view camera, have resonated with collectors and curators in a significant way.

Lydia has a new series of portraits in her project, Falling from Grace.

These pictures are also portraits, this time in the studio with a single sitter. They look a lot like old Dutch paintings with a modern twist. Each model holds a piece of food. When seen together they seem to present us with a feast, albeit the presentation is complicated. It is not clear whether they are presenting us with something nourishing or taunting us with the gift. They are about intimacy and connections, about trust and doubt.

This series of portraits is about appetites and forbidden fruit.

Together the pictures present a feast; fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cake. It is not clear whether they provide nourishment or taunt us with the gift. They appear to offer and withhold at once.

Despite their forthright appearance the images suggest a tension. They connect and disengage simultaneously, proposing a precarious intimacy. The images hover between strength and vulnerability and speak to issues of temptation and trust.