Ian Van Coller

From artist's statement: "The institution of domestic service, so ingrained in South African culture, is a complex arena of interaction that brings individuals together who would otherwise stand on opposite sides of an enormous gulf in ethnicity, culture, education and poverty into an intensely intimate, personal and sometimes awkward interdependence." (Additional statement here.)

Interior Relations is Ian Van Coller's portrait series of South Africa's domestic workers. The portraits are taken in the domestic setting, where cultural identity is typically left behind. The photographer asked them to wear their preferred clothing, giving them a cultural voice in the very place where identity is restricted for them daily.