« Facing is a long term work I have started in 2010 on an island in Baleares (Mediteranean sea). The subject is very simple and systematic : people photographed from the back, naked, facing the sea. Only the people change, the background, nature, is constant.
The human being in front of the endless sea – free from everything, including clothes and all worldly possessions – is an eternal subject matter, timeless. Indeed, that concerns everybody (sea is a contemplation and reflexion place for most of us), beyond all ages, social categories, sex, race and color. This could be any sea in the world at any moment in time, only hair styles and tatoos provide any guidance.
Facing is a gallery of humanistic portraits and minimalist. The body’s posture is the only language of these characters : their nudity is speaking for them. In fact, as we observe each photograph, the posture, never indecent, tells a lot about these unknown people, notwithstanding that we cannot see their facial expressions or even their eyes, the supposed ‘gateway to the soul’.
The models are unfettered, unconstrained by society. They are in a pure state of freedom. The postures and poses are natural and unchoreographed. I simply watch the models, who graciously and stocially agreed to pose for me, look out into the endless sea and my presence doesn’t seem to disturb them. Does it ? Are they shy, ashamed, confident, happy, sad ? The viewer is left to determine. »
Caroline Deloffre
[email protected]
The french photographer Caroline Deloffre started taking photographs with her father’s old Pentax camera when she was a teenager. After studying Art History at La Sorbonne and a graduate in photography of l’Ecole des Gobelins (Paris), she travelled all around the world before settling for a while in New York. Fascinated and fed by the city’s energy, Caroline honed her photography skills by collaborating on an edition of a french cultural guide. Back in Paris, she worked in advertising for several years before becoming a still photographer for cinema.
In her personal work, she endeavors to comprehend the human being, his relation towards nature, the world he has built, and more intimately, his everyday life, anonymity and loneliness. She is fascinated by the night world : its lights, poetic mystery, theater of all fantasies, actors and their eccentricities… all reflected in her 2010 Parisian solo exhibition « Nyctalope ».
At the same time, she is attracted to landscapes and their poetry, especially long-abandonded industrial sites, uninhabited places and seafronts. Her subject matter focuses on both the natural world and humans’ place within it.
In the spirit of Caspar David Freidrich and Winslow Homer, her current project Facing explores the existential experiences and emotions of faceless human beings looking out into the abyss of a vast and unforgiving sea.
Winner of 1er Prix du jury at My Provence Festival in 2011, « Facing » was collectively exhibited at Fondation Vasarely in Aix en Provence (South of France).
Based in Paris, leading her job in total independance, she now collaborates with the press, institutions and differents communication agencies, and works in cinema.
Facing is exhibited in Paris at the Fotofever Art Fair and Galerie Charlot until Nov the19th 2011.
