Born in London (1971), De Clermont studied architecture before enrolling in photography at Cape Town’s Ruth Prowse School of Art. Her photojournalism, which focuses on the visual currencies of group identity and formation, has been widely published. After Life, her debut solo exhibition, presented at Cape Town’s João Ferreira Gallery and excerpted here, is a document of ex-prisoners and their tattoos. The bodily marks convey various meanings. For instance, tattoos showing hand salutes – three or two fingers or a thumb – indicate membership in one of the three chapters of the Numbers prison gangs. A recovering heroin addict, De Clermont says the project made her consider her own biography and “how it would be if we all had our past mistakes permanently emblazoned across our faces”. Araminta de Clermont lives and works in Cape Town.