For this photo Sam Taylor Wood suspended herself in her studio with ropes, assisted by a bondage expert, then digitally removed the ropes from the photographs. The result is a body that seems to float freely, even though the actual pose depended on restraint. She described the resulting image as showing “a moment of absolute release and freedom.”
Acquired by the Graves Gallery, Sheffield in 2006.

The series of photographs were made after Taylor-Wood had experienced two cancers, and the series has been discussed in relation to bodily vulnerability and recovery. That history gives the images an added poignancy, although they needn’t be reduced to an autobiography: they can also be read more broadly as images of freedom, dependence and the precariousness of the body.