Oliver Chanarin photographed his partner Fionna bargess during the lockdown period during the outbreak of Covid-19. The aim of these photographs was to express the uneasy tranquillity of this period.

However, there were many critics of his work that described his images as a basic. They see his images as invasive in his way of showing a young woman’s body being inspected and scrutinized from a range of close-up and intimate angles.

In these images her body is being inspected by the cameras , which unforgivingly presents every detail. Pores, wrinkles, dimples, hairs, every aspect of her body became visible. Critics describe how this very descriptiveness portrays the project as very male, and how it was created to appeal to the male gaze by showing a sexualised and excessive portrayal of the female body.

One viewer said the images ‘speak of the power the man with the camera has, a power the model appears to be willing to submit to.’

Other work:

He also photographed Helen Abelen in the image titled ‘painter’s wife’:

The title, ‘Painter’s Wife’, presents Abelen not as her own person but rather as the property and an accessory to her husband. However, many believed this to be problematic and offensive as the feminist movements didn’t appreciate the way women were being identified through their husbands.