In Juno Calypso's acidic and disturbing universe, femininity is expressed in infinite mirrors, pastel solitudes, and beauty rituals pushed to the point of absurdity.
A virtuoso self-portraitist, the British photographer has been building a body of work for over a decade where glamour cracks to reveal contemporary anxieties, from the cult of the image to the obsession with immortality.
Calypso directs herself: always the same model, but always a different woman, in intimate and often abandoned settings: motels for secret romances, spas resembling modern tombs, or even that incredible nuclear bunker near Las Vegas. It is this surreal setting, designed during the Cold War by a cosmetics magnate to escape the apocalypse, that gave birth to her striking series. What to do with a million years.
The place, preserved like a kitschy time capsule with its pink kitchen and artificial garden, is now owned by a cryopreservation organization. Calypso sees in it two Western obsessions with immortality: the desire to survive nuclear war in confined luxury, and the desire to defy death through technology. She stages her recurring character in this setting—sexy, frozen, confronted with the boredom of a fabricated eternity. Trained at the London College of Communication, the artist uses the sophisticated language of posing and cinematic lighting to denounce the injunction to beauty. Her mirrors are not flattering: they multiply a reflection that condemns one to incessant self-examination, while an anti-wrinkle mask transforms into a muzzle worthy of Hannibal Lecter.
The dark humor and introspection that permeate her work allow Juno Calypso to navigate with ease from immersive galleries to major fashion campaigns. The photographer offers us a profoundly personal art, where the age of the selfie is transformed, through her cruel yet tender lens, into a mirror of our most contemporary fears.
The visuals accompanying this article are provided by Bridgeman Images, an international agency specializing in photo and video licensing, whose mission is to support creators and distribute artistic and cultural content to global audiences.
