Here is a focus on three of the readers’ favourite discoveries, presented last February on Fisheye’s website.
1.Hélène David
Magical realism. This is the term that could define Hélène David’s work. In her book Noces ou Les Confins Sauvages (Nuptial, The Wild Borders ed.) photographs interact with drawings, printed in relief, and poems. A free diving into the wild and wonderful Mediterranean universe. Hélène David’s book, published by Sun Sun editions, is a strange and fascinating object. Her images, echoing delicate sea travels, link men, animals and nature in a transcendent world. By their sides, Gildas Sécrétan’s drawing, printed in relief, punctuate the story. “This is a tactile experience”, Hélène explains, “a fossil, a print, something lost that would still leave marks in the matter“. The pages create a form of dialogue, between the fluid, ephemeral instants captured on the images and the eternal print left on paper. The story ends with the words of Donatien Garnier, a poet and friend of the photographer. “He closes the visual narration, like a loud, harsh door closing, a form of brutality”, she says.
© Hélène david
2.Kathleen Meier
Young photographer Kathleen Meier uses image to try to comprehend the world revolving around her. Her series Huis Clos (Enclosed ed.) takes us on a psychological journey, where poetry meets claustrophobia. Dark and mysterious, the pictures that fill Huis Clos talk about confinement. Yet, there, men are absent. Melancholy and strangeness leak out of those empty places, where loneliness is heavily present. “I use photography to express my feelings, my personal reflections that could be universal”. She delivers, through her series, a deep story about isolation. “Huis Clos is a suggested confinement to which we react the way we would if we were facing a dead end, both litteraly and figuratively”. Sweet nostalgia and oppression fill those abandoned and disturbingly calm spaces.
© Kathleen Meier
3.Danielle Lessnau
In her series Extrémité, Brooklyn based photographer Danielle Lessnau performs. Her tender and enigmatic images are taken using a pinhole camera, placed inside her sex. Get to know the artist, and her unique vision of bodies, of relationships.
“I created eight tiny stenoscopes from old film canisters so that I could photograph my lovers from inside my body. I wanted it to become the camera. Each image is a unique moment I shared with my partners, as we entered a space of stillness together for a few minutes”, she says.
© Danielle Lessnau
