Text below the pictures
Alive.
Fragile.
Son of Mother Nature who can him back.
That the Man thus opens to the others, sincerely, and tastes this rough resemblance which binds him to his fellow men.
Rich differences remain but the essence of every human being is the same.
Vulnerable man you are, respects the person in front of you.
Do not overuse supremacy, thirst of power, nor control.
Consider the man. Consider the nature. Simply. “
The first series of photos by Maurice (AKA Marie Saudin) tends to offer a key for why, how, which? But also a certain dose of personal psychology in an inverted vision mode, and this, in several dimensions, of symbolism and imagination too…..
At first, there is this person, this thing, this face which poses.
Cold, white, motionless.
The fixed glance.
Breathless.
At the embryonic stage, foetus or being racked by mortuary?
The will of the centring, the shooting insists on the short-lived and timeless character of the subject.
It is the portrait of the soul which showed itself at a precise moment, in a given situation.
The soul is even more perceptible thanks to the role of the camera which immortalizes the image.
The person exists but does not feel at this precise moment.
The person mixes with its essence, the one who opens to the senses. But those are deranged. They are as if they were damaged or just stuck in time. The ear only hears a thud.
The mouth as the nose is forced to stop any activity.
Eyes persist in this hostile universe but can only catch light and movement, the absence of clarity eliminating any detail.
The person is present but its senses are not.
“The issue stands in an apnoeal mode and in an inverted verticality “.
Few seconds of a moment considered as private.
The character in the photo feels its condition while the spectator only sees it simply; or at least can guess after some questioning and understands that the models are their head down in an aquarium filled with water.
It is also important to specify that the image is not altered.
It is rough, hiding no details and no off-camera elements which we can find in the reflection of the transparent glass.
We can guess a hand, a finger which gets ready to start the photo, a hidden glance behind the lens.
The person is photographed but is also imprisoned.
The photographer chooses the situation but its influence goes beyond the preparation.
The hands which hold the camera and which offer their reflections at the level of the neck of the photographed people play two roles. One of action, the other one of intention.
Hands were connected with the body of the photographer, they assist him. He is thus indirectly present in the image but also in the intention.
So, in a morbid comparison, hands could play the part of an executioner’s in the situation of these innocent people, those who force and kill by strangling.
But the person must be respected; he offers a short-lived image which insists on its fragility and the respect which we have to show him.
The person offers itself but the person fascinates the eyes. The thought does not stop.
The person is vulnerable at this moment but one mustn’t exploit it nor to dominate it.
Anyone in this situation is vulnerable and weak.
The invaluable models posed in a delicate situation but they offered themselves, voluntarily.
Some people do not have this choice though, and remain human beings.
The spectator can also open his imagination to the situation. He could see the subject imprisoned into a scanner, or into a box which shows what we think, or even remind him the universe of the dream, of time stopped, or even a funny the situation…. The imagination offers a lot of suggestions that everyone can take from different readings.
Constraint from the glass box, a situation put into abyss, of a moment, a stopped breath, a silence.
The truth doesn’t much matter, the image turns away towards another reality that each monopolizes…
The eye of the photographer can be image trouble maker, face trouble maker, truth breaker and also sometimes whistleblower.