The street pole is a quiet but persistent presence in my work. More than urban clutter, it’s a form I keep returning to. In each frame, it becomes something different: a spine, a partner, a boundary. The pole never moves, but everything around it does — the body, the gesture and the emotion.

To me, the street pole is not just a physical object. It becomes a symbol of the tension between body and space. Usually dismissed as mundane urban furniture, the pole is reactivated in these images as a site of both vulnerability and resistance. Through gestures of holding, pressing and folding, the women in my photographs explore how their bodies can move through public space.

I have photographed women and street poles for years, beginning by exploring my own body in relation to them. Over time, my focus has deepened, shaped by ongoing reflection on how women experience public space. The body’s interaction with the pole becomes a way to reclaim presence. It’s a way to ask how softness can exist within hard structures, and how stillness might hold its own kind of strength. To me, these gestures form a kind of choreography of subtle, intentional movements that reveal the texture of city life. The pole’s rigidity contrasts with the body’s fluidity, but in these images, they do not clash. Instead, they enter into quiet dialogue.