3rd Prize Winner
MPB Photography Award

Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2025

Lillian Liu

Title:

“Slut Royale: A Feminist Reclamation”

Medium & Dimensions:

Digital, Nikon D850, 85mm lens

About the Artist

Lillian is an award-winning creative photographer who utilizes digital techniques to create unique atmospheres in her work. She is a part of the humanitarian artistic collective Free Spirit, headquartered in Paris, as of 2016. Features, clients, and publications as a photographer include: Marie Claire Taiwan, Vogue Taiwan, HarperCollins, Adobe, Penguin Random House, and many more.

“Slut Royale: A Feminist Reclamation”: My work confronts the loaded language of femininity—specifically the derogatory word “slut,” by dragging it through the wig of history and into stripper boots. Using Marie Antoinette as a decadent symbol of both indulgence and vilification, I reframe the aesthetics of excess, sexuality, and rebellion to explore how the female body has long been both ornament and threat. In this series, cigarettes are in her hair, punk rock studs are everywhere. She pours pearls from her teapot. Smeared lipstick blurs the lines between elegance and eroticism, between object and agent. These aren’t just props- they are relics of survival in systems that punish female pleasure and visibility. I hope for the work to demand freedom through audacity.