Love is a stranger

Melanie Manchot uses photography to challenge socially and culturally constructed ideas about beauty, aging, sexuality, and fantasy. Her photo-text series of kissing couples explores the notions of intimacy and personal space, and the accompanying lines relating people's fantasies add to the subtle humor and tension of the photographs. Manchot's best-known series of nude photographs of her mother is considered beautiful by some and unsettling by others. Her images can be disturbing but are equally gentle and affectionate.