Whitford Fine Art is proud to present for the first time in the UK works from the series L'Afrique c'est chic!, by Dutch photographer and digital artist Ingrid Baars.

With this series Baars shows her unique style of photo-manipulation, which merges live model photography with traditional African sculpture, on occasion enhanced by accessories from famous continental stylists and designers such as Iris Van Herpen, Romain Brau and Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Baars has described her works as a form of visual sculpture within two dimensions. Through the seamless combination of live-model photography, images of central African reliquary and fashion accessories, her work presents a contrast between inanimate objects and their living, breathing counterparts. Using photographic software, Baars manipulates the light, texture and balance of her handcrafted images to portray evocative scenes of female sensuality. As such, Baars explores the relationship between aesthetics and emotion, flesh and seduction, fashion and timelessness, but always in an original poetic style that pays homage to African tribal art's portrayal of the human body and face.

Ingrid Baars was trained at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Her accolades include winning the 1997 Illustration Year Award and the 2008 award for photography from the Art Directors Club Netherlands. In 2007, a monograph was published featuring a selection of her work from 2000 to 2007.