Bulletproof

» A young, bare-chested sailor, his hands in the pockets of his white pants. His skin is smooth, pale, perfect. The nose is straight, the lips flush. Underneath the cap, his hair is short, black, strong. He is looking to the East; life lies before him. His beauty is unfathomable, sublime because it will last but an instant – a few months, maybe a few hours. Vee Speers eternalizes this moment of fragile adolescent beauty. She photographs the time before first loss, the time of childhood. She captures this in the bodies and faces. And she creates a world layered upon a world, of characters upon children who are no longer children. She dresses, styles, costumes, sometimes masks them. (...) Each and every one, in their manner and in their costume, is invincible. Each and every one holds the reins, dictates the rules. All is done. Certainly, Vee Speers has already photographed this band of heroes and heroines, has already had them play roles, against the same grey wall, six years earlier, when the adolescents were nothing more than children. Children who had just left a birthday party, dressed in their disguises of the little raven, the dancer in the tutu, the wounded boxer, the doll killer.« (Julie Estève)