For her new project “I Fought the Law”, young American artist Olivia Locher has shot 50 portraits and still lives representing the breaking of a particularly strange law from each of the country’s 50 states, many of which have to do with nudity, sexuality and obscenity. Each picture is titled by state, but the law that is being broken is not explained with words – rather it has to be worked out from looking at the image. For instance, “I Fought the Law (Idaho)” seems to be about nude sunbathing, “I Fought the Law (Florida)” might be about painting on one’s clothing, and “I Fought the Law (Delaware)”, in which a model drinks from a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume is … something of a mystery? Together these works reveal a country with a rather prudish, sex-obsessed legislature – although, thankfully, many of these laws have since been repealed. “The majority of them were at one point removed,” explains Locher, “others never became laws (but came close!) and a few of them are complete myths.”

More information at: Steven Kasher Gallery