SHAE DETAR: Another World

NOTE: Skeleton Key Press is SOLD OUT of this title. Any remaining copies are available from the following independent bookstores (while supplies last): Setanta (London), La Nouvelle Chambre Claire (Paris), These Days (Los Angeles), or LASAL (Spain). For any questions related to these orders, please contact the bookstore directly.

Another World is the debut monograph of the acclaimed experimental photographer and mixed-media artist Shae Detar. Surrealistic, vibrant color is at the forefront of this collection of hand-painted photographs that submerges its viewers into a utopic pocket dimension governed by Mother Earth and the feminine mystique. Populated exclusively by women, Another World welcomes viewers into an alternate reality where the unabashed, innate beauty of the nude female form is openly revered, and different body types are cherished.

Detar, a self-taught model-turned-artist, blurs the divide between contemporary art and fashion photography by embracing a confident vision of feminity. Far removed from material amenities and tactile assurances, she defiantly thrusts her protagonists into sprawling expanses of wilderness. Unmarred by societal conventions, each woman that appears throughout the book’s 65 meticulously reproduced plates simultaneously basks in her strength and fragility.

By utilizing a modernized inversion of an antiquated painting technique popularized during the 19th century, Detar cloaks each work in otherworldly nostalgia: an earnest restlessness for something to be experienced that is simultaneously comfortingly familiar. And while the artist navigates her practice as a form of escapism, Another World undeniably mirrors our reality, where acknowledgment and acceptance of natural beauty manifest a widespread cultural movement.

PRESS:

PhotoVogue｜i-D｜AnOther｜METAL｜Heroine｜Lampoon｜Creative Review｜ODDA｜The Face｜Od Review｜POLKA｜L’Œil de la Photographie

“For all its ethereal variety of landscape, it is women’s bodies which are the focus of the images in Another World. There is a sensual celebration of fleshly reality in the different poses—writhing, contorted, proudly upright or lying in relaxed repose—of these bodies. Painted-on color is used to accentuate these differences and at the same time to highlight that women’s bodies, regardless of their ‘desirability’ or conformity to conventional beauty ideals, have an absolute validity of existence independent of the consuming, objectifying male gaze.” —Azu Nwagbogu, from the essay in Another World

“It would be a mistake for anyone to underestimate the process of this dedicated, fiercely creative, childlike author of fine art. Artists like Shae Detar live for their craft, there is a bit of magic in its essence.” —Thomas Werner, from the foreword in Another World

“Set against the breathtaking backdrop of a number of deserted landscapes across the US, and portraying [Shae Detar’s] muses as they blend in with the textural, chiaroscuro of the surrounding sceneries, the images inhabiting Another World are an empowering ode to women’s connection to Mother Earth, its raw elements and inescapable cyclicality.” —Gilda Bruno, i-D

“There’s plenty of human touch in Another World, a sprawling, intimate collection of images that show off the beauty and vulnerability of their subjects.” —Jade Wickes, The Face

“. . . there’s plenty of ecstasy [in Another World]. But there’s also satisfaction, curiosity, introspection, amusement, suspicion, indifference, and understanding. . . . The book itself is otherworldly, true; but what’s also true is that each person in the book is another world unto herself.” —Od Review

“[The images in Another World] convey the energy and strong vibes that are propagated by those women who, in their daily lives, believe in the ideal of diverse beauty that distinguishes humankind, which is increasingly accepted and recognized.” —Rica Cerbarano, PhotoVogue

SHAE DETAR is an award winning and widely published American artist who merges painting and photography to surrealistic effect. Her easily recognized work has been exhibited internationally and featured in many publications including Vogue Italia, Vogue NL, Marie Claire, Interview, i-D, VICE, Dazed, Grazia, The New Yorker, ELLE UK, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Forbes, NYLON, Teen Vogue, Fast Company, and Refinery29. Another World is her first monograph.

AZU NWAGBOGU is the Founder and Director of African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), a non-profit organization based in Lagos, Nigeria. Nwagbogu was elected as the Interim Director/ Head Curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa from June 2018 to August 2019. He is the creator of Art Base Africa, a virtual space to discover and learn about contemporary African Art, and also serves as Founder and Director of Lagos Photo Festival, an annual international arts festival of photography held in Lagos.

THOMAS WERNER is a private art dealer, international curator, author, and fine art photographer, and former New York gallerist. Werner lectures internationally on fashion, photography, education, business, and the art market, as well as producing numerous international exhibitions and collaborative projects. 

Published by Skeleton Key Press, March 2023
ISBN 978-82-692410-2-0
23 x 29 cm (9.1 x 11.4 in)
Hardcover (clothbound/foil stamped back & spine, printed cover), 136 pages, 65 color plates
Edited by Shae Detar
Book design by Russell Joslin
Cover design by Shae Detar & Russell Joslin
Texts by Azu Nwagbogu & Thomas Werner
Text in English

First Edition limited to 450 copies