The Mirror Between Us, 2017 - 2022

Sherry Wiggins and photographer Luís Branco have created a large body of performative photographs that explore the elemental connection of the female body with the natural world (always with Wiggins as the subject) in multiple locations in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

In River in the Mirror we encounter Wiggins standing in a shallow river draped in sheer white fabric; she holds a large oval mirror that covers most of her torso and face, except for her right eye. The mirror faces outward, reflecting the light-dappled river ahead of her. In Woman at the Bridge II, she is likewise situated in the river, but she bends backward, the sheer fabric draped over her face and snaking behind her, curving in the river’s current. In Encarnado, she bends forward in a rocky canyon, enveloped in brilliant crimson fabric, the length of which appears to have been dragged through the river. In Dying Waters at Santa Susanna I, she is shot from above, walking across a beige, cracked and parched landscape toward the orange-veined shoreline of a murky reservoir. In The 25th of April, Wiggins stands in a lush meadow, gently holding a bouquet of red carnations in front of her tilted-back face. Here, she celebrates the date of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. In the black-and-white image Outside Woman, Wiggins is viewed from the inside of a house—she stands outside, wrapped in a gauzy fabric.

In these images and many others, Wiggins reveals herself as an older woman and a strong female archetype, emboldened by and immersed in various landscapes and waterscapes.

Wiggins and Branco’s creative collaboration has been supported by Foundation OBRAS in Evoramonte, Portugal. These works have shown in the United States and in Portugal. Their large exhibit The Mirror Between Us was displayed in the beautiful Igreja de Sao Vicente in Evora, Portugal in 2022. Cydney Payton wrote an essay for the exhibition, Mirror Image, which you can download below.

(photography by Luís Branco, installation shots by Robert Kittila and Pedro Barral)