Trinidad Mac-Auliffe

With her background in anatomical drawing, and in theatre, Chilean-born photographer Trinidad Mac-Auliffe brings the painted human body into contemporary photography in dramatic and visually stunning ways. Spattered, dripping, and speckled designs highlight organic features like eyes, the twist of a neck, hands displayed either in prayer or protection. Painted skin transforms the human body into a theatrical stage for Mac-Auliffe, rendering the human body as an enigma, with the boundary between the mind and the soul as her subject.

There's vibrant longing in her portraits but also melancholy, a mood which can be found in her flowers as well. These are portrayed as torn or incomplete, unopened buds. There is a sense of potential being, of a mysterious persona eternally emerging from under paint or from gesture. The vulnerability of this never-ending self-creation pervades the photography of Trinidad Mac-Auliffe, for, as she says, "vulnerability is. . .what makes us wonder, think, cry, laugh, love and hate."