Polly Borland is perhaps best known for her unconventional portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, as well as her startlingly direct images of fellow countryman Nick Cave, who she has photographed for nearly 35 years. In the illuminating feature length documentary Polymorphous directed by Alex Chomicz and produced by Filmfolk, the Brighton-based, Australian photographer becomes the subject. Below, Borland’s long-standing muse and confidante describes the experience of posing for her grotesque and unsettling series, Smudge.

Nick Cave on Polly Borland

Rock stars are cartoons—we are supposed to be seen from afar, and Polly’s very much the same way, with the red hair and the glasses. She convinced me to do a session and I was kind of terrified to be honest because you were really at the mercy of Polly’s imagination. I was taken into a room and over two days had to put on tights and stockings. I’d wear stockings over my head and fright wigs and be made up in different ways, with little ping pong balls and balled-up bits of fluff pushed down the leotard, so I kind of looked kind of leprous. And I had to give myself over to this process of being degraded, initially degraded and there was quite a beautiful thing that happened out of that. You read about this sort of thing, but there was a kind of transformation that came about within me through this ritual of degradation that she put me through—it was really exciting. Everything was stripped away.

Polymorphous is available on DVD via Other Criteria Gallery, London and Facebook.