POST 2

Shadows, Darkness, Suffocating.
Camille Vivier
Art Photography Now - Susan Bright (p148-149) Photos from the series Camille, 2003

Camille Vivier is an artist and filmmaker who works in fashion.
'I try to show things, a spirit, whilst at the same time allowing them to have an opaqueness and an element of enigma. What really interests me is how a mental image can take form in a real one.' - Camille Vivier.

I love the darkness and shadows in these photographs. In the first photograph I feel tension, it makes me feel uncomfortable and almost suffocated by the dress the model is in. The cold temperature of the lighting in both photographs combined with the darkness and the heavy shadows really sucks me in, it makes me ask what are they doing or thinking, it makes me look closer at the details of the surroundings and expression. Both photos to me represent a vacant exhausted look.

The first photograph reminds me of a strait jacket - fitting in with my subject of depression and mental illness.

A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with overlong sleeves and which is typically used to restrain a person who may otherwise cause harm to him/herself and others. The ends of the sleeves can be tied to the back of the wearer, so that the arms are kept close to the chest with possibility of only little movement. - Wikipedia

From looking at Bianca Brunner, Sam Taylor-Wood and Camille Vivier I want to explore an idea further; the feeling of being restricted to move and suffocated and representing it in a literal photographic form.