They're there, strange and deformed. 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 (MEP) in Paris until mid-February.

The images produced by the photographer plunge the public into a direct relationship with the model. The originality of Senta Simond's photographs stems from a fresh look at specifically female bodies. In 2018, having just graduated, she made a name for herself with a series of photographs in which women's identities are recomposed through the glimpses they allow of their own bodies and faces.

The artist soon received a number of awards, including the Aperture/Paris PhotoBook prize 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" effect seems largely due to the unusual angles of view, combining close-ups, plunges and counter-plunges, to which are added the contorted poses of the 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 like that... Collaboration, however, encompasses another dimension. Built around a photographic and video dyptic, portraying a dancer and a harpist, 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, merging with the instrument for the harpist and expressing itself 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, PARIS 4E
UNTIL FEBRUARY 11, 2024
MEP-FR.ORG