blood dancer 1992

Wolfgang Tillmans made this photograph, ‘blood dancer’, probably sometime in the nineties, using film. It’s dark, and then there’s this figure emerging out of the darkness, a blood dancer. I imagine Tillmans with his camera, in the club, moving around, trying to capture the energy and the feeling of the dancer, the atmosphere of the scene, the dark space. Is it blood or is it sweat? It’s a strange, beautiful image – the dancer looks down, almost shy, caught in this moment of release, of letting go. I love how he uses photography to freeze something, to make a record, but also to express something about himself, like other artists whose work deals with the body, with emotion, with intimacy. It reminds me of Nan Goldin’s photography. He's not just documenting reality, he’s transforming it. It's all about this conversation between artists, where we all borrow from each other, play with each other's ideas, and make something new.