Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s Photo Studio is Sexier Than Yours

Though exposed ventilation pipes, scraped metal folding chairs, and plywood all figure prominently in the self-portraits of Paul Mpagi Sepuya, the Californian photographer’s insights into the inner workings of an artist’s studio—camera tripod and all—all manage to have an air of eroticism, and not just in the frames where Sepuya’s body is tightly pressed against the silky white drapes of the backdrop. Those intimate scenes of Sepuya at work are now on public view in “Figures, Grounds and Studies,” his exhibition up at New York’s Yancey Richardson Gallery until March 18. They’re a tantalizing challenge to the desire and expectations of the viewer, obscuring both Sepuya himself and his process while at the same time letting them (almost) in. Get a look inside, here.