But Others Need to Pee - Camille Mariet x Polyester zine

All Photography by Camille Mariet.

Layout and foreword by Ione Gamble.

Title by Brian Cervera.

Special thanks to: Jennifer Hamilton, Rocco Estrada, John and Julianne Torres, Joe Talbot, The Chappell Family, Gina Stewart, Carlyn McNabb, Kiersty Boon, and Alfie Gleeson.

Subjects featured: Audrey Hargaray, Danielle Torres, Taylor Overstreet, Brenda Reyes Chavez, Tresa Moody, and Melanie Porter.

COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in part or whole without written permission from the publishers. Š2019 Polyester Gamble limited and Camille Mariet, the artist. The views expressed in But Others Need To Pee are those of Camille Mariet and Editor in Chief, and are not neccessarily shared by the publisher, these parties cannot be responsible for them.

Sex, violence and vulnerability are three facets of the human experience explicitly tied to our everyday reality. The fear of violence, desire for vulnerability, and the intrigue of sex.

Historically, the lens in which we view these three things have been dictated by men. Our society is comprised of a never ending cycle of often violent, nearly always sexual, imagery of women.

The strength of Camille’s work is her ability to not show vulnerability as a commodity. The artist’s portraits of tear-struck femmes do not serve as an antithesis to those stood tall, wielding weapons; but rather represent our inner thoughts in their most explicit form. Yes, her women are strong. But they’re also weak.

They’re also in pain. Or heartbroken. Or furious. Or all of the prior mentioned. By refusing to present us with a glossed over version of our messiest moments, her work cuts through you; and comes far closer to representing our reality than the canon of male produced history that has dominated our lived experience.

On the subject of reality, Camille’s work isn’t much interested in portraying truths. Her photography could be viewed as a full fantasy. It could also conjure up memories as if plucked from your worst nightmare. The images she produces are unapologetically violent — but the work serves to do more than simply shock. Flipping through these pages, as you see femme after femme drenched in blood, pointing knifes, clutching hearts and staring into mirrors; Camille is quietly working to change how our psyches view women with weapons. Be those emotional, physical, or psychological.

Uninterested in portraying her characters as passive — or even agreeable — Camille is seeking to readdress the power dynamics still asserted throughout our existence.

The images invite you to adopt the same attitude of the women within them. While flipping through this book, its characters urge you to be the messiest, most gorgeous, unhinged version of yourself that you’ve always been taught is unacceptable.

L.A. based Camille Mariet’s work focuses on themes of gender, sex, power, and violence. Referencing midcentury advertising, pornography, and cinema, Mariet constructs fictive scenes of sexual abandon and murderous violence in lurid detail and with explosive colour.

The scenes are at once grotesque and glamorous; cold and alienating, yet inviting and tactile.

But Others Need to Pee casts a gaze that’s simultaneously adoring and hostile towards the pleasures, and pains, of modern femininity.