An unsettled expression, an unnatural pose, an unaccountably glossy complexion: the strikingly costumed characters in New Zealand artist Yvonne Todd’s photographic portraits fuse the glamorous and the ghoulish. Ever since winning the prestigious Walters Prize in 2002 for what judge Harald Szeemann declared was ‘the work that irritated him the most’, Todd has played with photographic precision and convention to render familiar figures and objects in a new light. And whether she’s capturing an angel-faced starlet or a disembodied limb, she always has an eye for the humour that’s inherent in her unexpected tableaux.

CARODY CULVER: You trained as a commercial photographer before attending art school in Auckland. What prompted your interest in portrait photography, and how has your training in commercial photography influenced your artistic practice?