Stranger Lives by Caitlin Teal Price

Stranger Lives is a vibrant taxonomy of sunbathers developed primarily on the sand between Coney Island and Brighton Beach from 2008 to 2015. Shot with a Mamiya RZ 6×7 camera and Kodak Portra film, the photographs possess a sharp focus and flattened perspective from above, invoking a specimen-like quality. Through this work, Price plays with the legacy of the uncanny — making the familiar strange, and drawing the viewer into an intimate and voyeuristic exploration of object and body.

The monograph features over 70 photographs from the series with an essay by Dorothy Moss, the curator of painting, sculpture and performance art at the National Portrait Gallery. A selection of the work was exhibited at Katzen Art Center in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2016 and most recently part of the exhibition “So Hot You Could Fry An Egg” at Cody Gallery.