Brightening the year: the flamboyant visions of Viviane Sassen – in pictures

In some of these photos, Sassen explores his sexuality, portraying himself in poses that are both sensual and comical. She thus frees herself from the still predominant codes of the male gaze, in which the woman is displayed as an erotic object. “I wanted to take back power over my own body. With a man behind the camera, a kind of tension always develops, which is often about eroticism, but usually about power,” explains Sassen in Loss and Longing by Robbert Ammerlaan (2017).

Photography: Viviane Sassen and Stevenson