A never ending artistic journey
My artistic journey started in 2006 and some of the art projects I initiated 15 years ago are even more pertinent today. My 1st solo exhibition was at 13 Sevigné gallery in central Paris. I had been working as a professional commercial photographer since the early 90s, whilst discretely exploring my own personal reflections through image though these images had not yet been exposed.
An important turning point
Professional photographer in paris, turning 40 and mother of two girls, I now felt a need to share my reflections and visions with others. Commercial photography was working very well but it’s only satisfying commercially. I felt that photography could also be a means to speak out on subjects which deeply concerned me whilst accompanying my daughters into the adult world. Then I met Jeanette Mariani who proposed to exhibit my personal images in her new Parisian gallery. Thus began a passionate journey exploring issues relating to identity and corporal representation in modern societies. I realized that the subjects which concerned me intimately were also of concern to others. Not everyone is able to express intimate thoughts and visions. I believe the role of an artist is to help access the doors to myriad channels, not always accessible alone. As a photographer, I began to experience a new sensation of artistic and human responsibility.
The emergence of social media
Today, more than ever, I feel the responsibility as an artist to speak out and sensitize others through image.
Some projects, like Armed Response Kids For Sale and Livedolls are even more pertinent today than when they were created. Over the last decade, we’ve been roaring full ball ahead into digital delirium, connected in every sense possible and driven to consume by our every connection.
We need to stop and question the ways in which we blindly advance in modern society. We’ve become increasingly docile and confortable in a techno world, whilst human values, health and sanity are all but prioritized.
Many of my projects demure unfinished. I like to leave an open window to be able to return to a specific theme when I feel new inspiration.
The issues I choose to explore are generally universal. My questions are of an essential and timeless nature.
As time goes on, some of the themes and projects I began years ago are increasingly relevant to actuality. This observation is particularly emphasized by the emergence of social media. Current dictatorship of social networking has encouraged irresponsable consumerism and harmful waste, not to mention increasing fear and loss or deformation of individual identities. This social crisis is particularly harmful to the new generations born into this ever intensifying digital era.
An urgent need to deconstruct
We are faced with an urgent need to deconstruct certain aspects of modern society, to be able to reconstruct a healthier future environment. Easier said than done! Too much social media and omnipresent technology can easily fog the brain, causing individuals feel exhausted, insufficient, unsatisfied, jealous, confused and generally frightened of life this side of the screen.
This state of unease is particularly evident amongst young teenagers, some of whom, according to numerous studies, can spend up to 9hours a day on some form of screen device. As a result we see more and more social and cognitive skills rapidly degrading within younger generations not yet armed sufficiently to resist. Armed Response