They’re there, strange and distorted. In the photographs of Swiss artist Senta Simond, objects and bodies appear under the photographer’s subjective gaze, which can be seen in the Studio of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris until next February.
The images produced by the photographer plunge the public into a direct relationship with the model. The originality of Senta Simond’s photographs lies in a fresh look at specifically female bodies. This is how she made her mark in 2018, having just graduated, with a series of shots in which identities are recomposed through what they agree to let us glimpse of their own bodies and faces. The artist soon won several awards, including the First PhotoBook Award at Paris Photo, and the Swiss Design Award. In this first series, as in the one presented at MEP, the photographer poses as close as possible to the model, suggesting movement. The model in the image is a living subject, not an object of the gaze. This on-the-spot aspect seems largely due to the unusual angles of view, made up of close-ups, plunges and counter-plunges, to which are added the contorted poses of her models.
Here, each image is the fruit of a necessary collaboration, for it takes a certain degree of trust to let a camera sneak up on you in this way… Collaboration, however, encompasses another dimension. Built around a photography and video dytic, portraying a dancer and a harp-playing musician, the exhibition brings together still images, moving images and music. At the artist’s request, certain sequences are filmed directly by the two female models, playing with chance and the taking in hand of one’s own image. It’s no longer just about photography or the female body.
The body is also a working tool for the models, it merges with the harpist’s instrument and is expressed in three dimensions through sound, image and video, meeting the public, dancing, navigating between intimate and relational representation.
SENTA SIMOND
Dissonance
MEP – Maison Européenne de la Photographie 5/7 rue de Fourcy 75004 Paris
Exhibition until February 11, 2024