Married Man
Natasha Caruana
Here Press
English
Softcover, Tape Bound
Limited edition of 500
192 pages
140 x 210 mm
2015
ISBN 9781908889539
Between 2008 and 2009, Natasha Caruana went on 80 dates with married men. She usually managed to take one or two illicit photographs with a disposable camera. A far cry from any glamorous excitement an adulterous affair might entail, her snapshots show the remnants of a cafe meal, a soiled coffee cup, the lid of a takeaway food container. Caruana stumbled upon a website that connects people seeking extramarital affairs. Fascinated by the internet’s impact on modern relationships – offline as well as on – she delved into this underworld dating scene, clocking up encounters with over 50 men over a period of 18 months. By the end, she was often meeting three or four a day.
Caruana says the project began in part as catharsis. But it became a performance. The deceit these men engaged in with respect to their wives and families was echoed by the photographer’s own masquerade. As her dates acted out their idea of the man playing away from home, so Caruana assumed the character each sought to complete the fantasy. The tabletop between them became a stage. What surprised her was how often she found herself listening to men talk at length about their wives, about loneliness, or feeling like a spare part in the family unit. In the end, Caruana found many desired nothing more than companionship and a sympathetic ear.
(source: https://www.herepress.org/books-prints/married-man/)
About the Artist
Natasha Caruana is a London-based artist working across photography, moving image and installation. Caruana has an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London. Her work begins autobiographically, exploring narratives of love, betrayal and fantasy, underpinned by a performative and playful approach. Her work is created drawing from archives, the Internet and personal accounts. The series Married Man breaks with traditional portrayals of infidelity, whilst later works grapple with the institution of marriage – its promise and defeat. She is a Senior Lecturer of Photography at the University of the Arts London.
Natasha Caruana recently had an early career survey show A Lover’s Discourse at the new Centre de la photographie de Mougins, France. The exhibition brought together fragments across eight series of works from the past 16 years. Caruana’s works have toured widely across the United States, France, Lithuania, Portugal, India, China, Australia and Saudi Arabia and included in numerous contemporary photographic catalogues, printed as monographs. Recent exhibitions include – The Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2019, Hooked, Science Gallery, London, 2018, Timely Tale, Photoworks, Brighton, 2017, The New Observatory, FACT, Liverpool 2017, The Real Thing, Flowers Gallery, New York, 2016, Married Man, International Center for Photography Museum (project space), New York, 2016. In 2014 Caruana was named as the winner of the BMW Artist in Residence Award at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum, France. The award led to solo shows at Les Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo and the monograph Coup de Foudre.
natashacaruana.com
(source: https://www.natashacaruana.com/our-story)
About the Publisher
Originally founded in 2011 by Harry Hardie and Ben Weaver, Here Press is an independent publishing platform, directed by Ben Weaver since 2017. Here Press collaborates closely with artists to explore the use of photography in book form.
herepress.org
(source: https://www.herepress.org/info/)
