It was the summer of 1983 and I was living at « La Louisiane » Hotel in Paris when this question confronted me without my being aware, at first, of what I was about to do.
I knew that I wanted to make a series of photographs in a way that I had not experimented with before, something that captured the totality of my experience while, at the same time, emptying it.
The pictures were all to be taken in my room at the Louisiane where there was only a single bed and nothing more. Chance had it that I found interesting models to whom I gave a minimum of indications on what style I was looking for in the subsequent nudes.
At the time my camera – a twin-lens Rolleiflex – had become a part of me. I lived with it until it was an extension of my very being, a second nature, without thinking.
I placed it at a set distance so there would be no need to focus.
I chose to count from 1 to 10 and then push the button without making any other decision, letting the camera capture whatever image occurred at that moment.
This was the only the process.
This was the way I executed 2 rolls of film… spontaneously, to avoid what was the hardest, sacrificing my own decision to choose when to take the picture.
I wanted to stand back.
I wanted to remove myself from the process of consciously taking pictures. It was only after they were finished that I started to write about them.
It flowed out of me.
The photographer as A zen Archer.
Laurence Sackman
in camera galerie
21 rue Las Cases
75007 Paris
tuesday – saturday 2 – 7 p.m.T: +33 (0)1 47 05 51 77
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www.incamera.fr
