Painted people

Boo Ritson's work inhabits a curious no-man's land somewhere between painting and photography. Rather than slapping paint onto a canvas, she cuts out the middle man and slaps it straight onto her models, and then photographs them before the paint can dry. She's particularly interested in depicting stereotypes, and in her latest images we meet a roster of characters inspired by American movies – hookers, hobos, hicks – that she has costumed, posed and painted into being. To add to the illusion, Ritson herself is not the photographer. She needs the photograph to immortalise the moment but it's the living, breathing, paint-covered subject that is the real work of art here.

Holly Kyte