Dzifa Benson

Poetry has taken me on some wildly unexpected journeys. As well as having a poem, Bottom Power, published in the magazine, this photoshoot story for the What is Black? issue of Trespass was a re-imagining of Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress entitled A Strumpet’s Progress. It was so much fun to do with my friend and fellow poet, Jacob Sam-La Rose. We got the whole works - make-up artist, a stylist putting us in different outfits to see which ones worked best and shooting in different locations within the venue now called The Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum.

Putting on the very heavy wig, extremely tight corset and unwieldy crinoline was a revelation. History, as we know, has liked to restrict women’s freedoms but it was another thing to experience that directly on the body in this way

Photos: Hugh O’Malley