shashasha

Winner of “First PhotoBook Award” by 2023 Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards

Carla Williams’ photobook “Tender” features images taken in private between 1984 and 1999, unpublished and largely unseen by others for more than thirty years. The images show Williams experimenting with photography and self-portraiture, exploring herself, her body, her identity, and the limits and possibilities that arise from their combination. Although the images are not presented in chronological order, they show Williams growing up, gaining confidence, and creating and recreating herself.

“I don’t remember when I first decided to take off my clothes for the camera. I know it was in that first year of photography classes, probably the first semester. The contact sheets showed me experimenting with stages of undress. Tights on. Tights off. Leg up. Smile. Wink. I figured I knew what to do, since I’d seen it played out for years. I never showed the pictures to anyone. They looked nothing like the magazines, but they sure looked like me, and I was thrilled. I was seeing exalted nudes every day in art history class, but I didn’t want to be Charis Wilson; I wanted to be Edward Weston and Charis Wilson in one.
I knew I needed more technical sophistication, and that I had launched into something I hadn’t yet begun to understand. I put away those negatives and contact sheets for more than thirty years. But I kept photographing. And I never fully put my clothes back on.”
― from Carla Williams’ afterword