Angélique de Place and Swannie Robert, our readers picks #266, both develop intuitive body of works, inspired by femininity. Though one is undertaking a spiritual quest, the other documents a rather unknown disease.
Swannie Robert
“My process is intuitive, sensitive and intimate. It questions the deep changes of our era”
, Swannie Robert says. This photographer and fashion stylist based in Paris is always documenting one’s self-appreciation, their relation to nature, and the importance of femininity in our society. Themes that we find in What she gave me. “The project tries to redefine the feminine principle as an energy source emanating from Earth”, she explains. Produced during a several-month trip to the island of Amorgos, in Greece, the series blends together pictures of landscapes and naked bodies: a quest of spiritual (re)connection between body and soul. “Though the series only showcases female bodies, it is the feminine energy – that we all have in us – that is represented”, the photographer tells us. To her, it is important to give value to this energy, lost in a mutating world. “A world which needs to recreate itself and find meaning”, she adds. A multilayered work tackled numerous philosophical theses.
© Swannie Robert
Angélique de Place
Born in France in 1988, Angélique de Place trained at the Paris Speos Institute of photography and in Magnum Master classes. She now lives and work between Paris and Athens, and develops an intimate body of work, inspired by femininity, emotions and empathy. In The Invisible, a documentary series, she illustrated her daily life, scarred by a disease: endometriosis. “Diagnosed in 2017 after ten years of medical guessing, this chronic disorder has already cost me seven operations, the photographer tells us. With this project, I want to shed light on this disease, in all its breadth and repercussions, because it is not only about me: one woman out of ten suffers from it – 176 million women in the world!” Working with a cold monochrome reminiscent of hospitals, Angélique de Place showcases what hides behind the scenes. Alongside the images, texts evoking journal entries describe her suffering. “There is no treatment. Surgical interventions, painkillers, hormonal injections and pills prescribed are merely fighting symptoms, not the cause, which is still unknown to this day (…) Women’s health has always been greatly stigmatized. Our pain is never taken seriously”, she reminds us. A necessary project.
© Angélique de Place
Cover picture: © Angélique de Place
