In this photo series South African photographer Dylan Culhane stages artist Umlilo in collage portraits and evokes a sense of multiplicity. A photo series from the Norient book Seismographic Sounds (see and order here).

Click on the title image to explore the photo series.

Umlilo is a natural performer and has a unique persona; as a photographer, I guess that combination is what drew me towards him. His music is so fluid in terms of style, genre, and gender to the point that it defies any single interpretation. I find that this idea pervades most of my collage portraits; we’re all such complex beings that a single moment can hardly be said to define us. A sense of multiplicity – of being more than one thing at any given time – is the prevailing narrative of our age, and thus presenting people in this way is arguably more honest than a standard head and shoulders snapshot. I also like the authenticity of working with my hands and paper and paint and glue, for no other reason than it makes my art production feel like work and not pure concept.