Dead glam: Anja Niemi is both subject and photographer in her new exhibition

In the dramatically staged self-portraits, Niemi depicts herself and another woman locked in a passionate clinch. One moment they’re spraying each other playfully with water, the next they’re killing each other. Are they lovers? Friends? Twins? Or – and this seems more likely – could they be two visions of the same person, a Jekyll and a Hyde fighting for control in the sun-drenched California desert? 

 

As photographer, subject and director, control is clearly important to Niemi, and it’s a theme that frequently crops up in her work. Like her idol Alfred Hitchcock, she is the omnipotent ruler of the world she creates.