For photographer Milly Cope, taking pictures is an act of affection in addition to a type of revelation. “I believe we spend an excessive amount of time hiding ourselves,” explains the 23-year-old, reflecting on why she is drawn to the naked body, “not only through clothing but in addition by concealing our innermost thoughts.” Approaching photography as a way of honouring vulnerability – each physical and emotional – her perception of nakedness as “facing yourself from the within out” is the tenet of the imagery in her upcoming book, Body Ceremony.

Attempting to explore the feeling of corporeal detachment so lots of us acquire over time as a consequence of learnt shame, the book explores what it means to be naked and why we must always rejoice melancholia. Body Ceremony (published by Snap Collective) collates work which celebrates the spectrum of complex emotions that make us human, encompassing confusion, discomfort, joy, and fear. In a landscape of overly curated perfection and filters, Cope’s photographs feel confessional. Evoking cinematic stills, they hint on the glamorisation of bodies on screen, and heighten the fantastic thing about bare reality: “It feels evermore beautiful to disclose a truth.”

“Photography itself is a melancholic act… a fear of what’s being lost; a desire to carry something close for a moment longer” – Milly Cope

Having posed for her own pictures from the age of 15, Cope’s self-portraits function journeys of acceptance. Even after almost a decade, she still finds it difficult to shoot herself, explaining, “It’s easy to feel insecure, nevertheless it is an invite to fight against that.” The character of analogue film means her body stays invisible after being shot, kept secure from judgement within the roll until it’s developed. The medium’s dependence on time encourages trust to be built, into her body like into herself. During a time when self-reverence can sometimes feel like a insurrection, she enshrines in her book her admiration for what the body endures and what it will possibly process emotionally. 

Through her lens, Cope metaphorically holds herself and other people she encounters, whether she knows intimately or whether or not they’re virtually strangers. Human connection and friendship are indeed on the centre of the imagery, documenting significant but fleeting moments with people from her recent life. It’s with a seemingly invisible camera that the photographer captures intimacy while managing to retain the moment’s honest and natural true essence. When asked what she would want people to remove from her book, she tells Dazed: “If Body Ceremony makes anyone feel slightly bit less alone, that might be quite lovely.”

But taking pictures isn’t only a way for Cope to understand, it’s also to recollect. “Photography itself is a melancholic act,” she explains, “a fear of what’s being lost; a desire to carry something close for a moment longer. I find it quite hard to recollect things clearly. My head is within the clouds loads. Perhaps because of this I take so many photos.” Accordingly, memory and love are woven into the material of Body Ceremony, radiating from every page. 

Body Ceremony is published by Snap Collective and is on the market to pre-order now.

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