bio
Mia Donovan is a photographer and filmmaker living and working in Montreal. She received a B.F.A in Art History and Studio Arts from Concordia University in 2002 and has received grants from both the du Maurier Arts Council in 2002 and Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec in 2004. Her most recent photographic series 'Stripped' opened in Montreal in January 2005.Her work has appeared in many publications including Maisonneuve Magazine, Kiss Machine, Elle Quebec and Artco .She is currently working as a freelance photographer and on her first documentary film (www.insidelararoxx.com).

solo shows
Observatoire 4, Montreal, Quebec, January 29-March 10 2005
Espace 206, Montreal, Quebec, March 25-April 14 2003
HiyateSpace, (Contact 2002 Internation Photography Festival), Toronto, Ontario, May 1-31, 2002.

selected publications & album covers
Maisonneuve Magazine
Kiss Machine
Montreal Mirror
Les Georges Leningrads - Sur les Traces de Black Eskimo
The Demon's Claws - self-titled
Elle Quebec
Nerve

press
Montreal Mirror, January 20, 2005, volume 20-number 30.
The McGill Daily, February 3, 2005. Vol-94-issue 33.
Cinq FM, radio (102.3) February 10, 2005.
Concordia Francais, March 5, 2005, Vol-4 number 6.
Artco, Taiwan, April issue 2005, No.151.
Nerve.com, November,18, 2005

stripped
Mia Donovan's photographs often examine the instincts and dynamics of sexual desire. In her most recent work, Stripped, Donovan takes a look at desire commodifed--sex as it is produced, packaged, bought and sold within the sex industry. Stripped is a series of colour photographs of women who provide subject and body to the adult entertainment industry. These lush, large-scale images operate more like documentary photographs than as portraits as Donovan represents the women as they appear on the job. Donovan's subjects are shown not only in the various locations where they work, but more importantly, they are presented in the dress and mien of their work personas.

Giving us more than just a 'behind-the-scenes' peek into the sex trade, these photographs detail the creativity and commitment required of women in the sex entertainment industry. These women use their bodies to earn their livelihood and put much time and effort into maintaining and perfecting their image. When your body is the tool of your trade, keeping the personal separate from the professional is tricky business. Much like an actor or an athlete, job security for workers in the sex industry depends greatly on their physical attributes and abilities. Stripped reveals some of the particular demands of the sex trade and reflects the desires of those that feed and drive it.

Through the large scale of Donovan's prints we are privilege to all the details and get a close-up look at what it takes to become a sublimation of sexual ideals, a professional sex icon. Unlike the images proliferated by the sex industry, the notion of work is not lost behind the dazzle of sex in Donovan's series; these photographs are not retouched and the layers of make-up, the hair, the nails, and even scars from plastic surgeries speak of the lengths to which these women go in order to successfully fulfill the expectations of their profession. Each woman is unique in how she presents herself, in what she offers. In the sex industry there are undoubtedly endless appetites and desires to satisfy, and like any other market, the entrepreneurs in this trade seek to find their niche. Donovan's sampling of sex professionals hints at the vastness and variance of desire that supports the huge business of adult entertainment.

Shot with medium and large format cameras, these photographs provide a counterpoint to the images of sex workers which we are accustomed to seeing. Donovan's work allows us to look freely at these women, and to see aspects that might be missed in dimly lit clubs or wiped away by digital processing. In looking more carefully, we begin to see only the artifice, and not the woman behind the carefully aimed projection of allure. Donovan's work resists repeating the social stereotypes associated with sex workers, and in a sense, seeks to reveal the day-to-day reality of this industry, and the way in which these women respond to the particular demands of their profession.
(Sarah Buchanan)