Fitting In/Expecting

“Fitting In” & “Expecting”: A Visceral Rite of Passage

Mirrored rooms heaped with layers of denim shed for charmeuse. Cheap cotton bras exchanged for phenomenons from France. Madison avenue ateliers. I approach gown fittings with abandon. Who wouldn't? It is a marvelous beautification. It is also a parallel universe. Sign me up.

However, curiosity about this sequence lead me to pursue it further.

Through the course of this project (phase one), some of these women started having babies (phase two). I asked my models if I could come back to shoot the maternity portion of their lives. Not one said no.

In the spirit of this convergence, I have learned to equate the desire to corral one’s body into a brutal but lovely dress with the desire to distort that same body by becoming pregnant: the discomfort, the desire, the urge. It reeks of patriarchy, but it is still a language of the heart. I shoot this pair of events to observe this language with complete respect.

It is a marvelous beautification. It is also a parallel universe. Sign me up.

Angela Cappetta

angelacappetta.com

Technical notes:

All prints are analog, silver-gelatin prints made from panoramic negatives shot with a

custom camera. Negatives have aspect ratio of 1:3 and are full frame and un-cropped.