On the Rocks

Elettra Cavendish presents her first fine art photography book: On the Rocks, a visual tale of self-exploration and defiance. Both the storyteller and the model, Cavendish bares her body and soul to the camera in an attempt to understand her true self as she battles the demons haunting her mind. On the Rocks is transgressive by nature, touching on the challenges of self-censorship and the exploration of a broad cross-section of social taboos, including mental illness and...
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Elettra Cavendish presents her first fine art photography book: On the Rocks, a visual tale of self-exploration and defiance. Both the storyteller and the model, Cavendish bares her body and soul to the camera in an attempt to understand her true self as she battles the demons haunting her mind. On the Rocks is transgressive by nature, touching on the challenges of self-censorship and the exploration of a broad cross-section of social taboos, including mental illness and self-medication. The artist is unapologetic about the raw quality of the images, none of which are ever retouched. She is also unabashedly middle-aged. The artist speaks of her work as photography of a performance. On the Rocks was designed with both the physical and the digital book editions in mind. Essentially shot at night, the book has a strong cinematic feel, which will be reinforced when played in loop. The particular format that was chosen, specifically designed to fit the proportions of the screen, contains nearly 300 pictures in a relatively compact format. In its upcoming hardcover edition, the book itself is a small piece of art, a livre objet, where the cover features an extremely explicit picture with the objectionable portion concealed by a "scratch off" ink similar to that found on lottery tickets.