CAROLLE BENITAH
http://www.carollebenitah.com
Represented by:
La Non-Maison
La Galerie 127
Le Deguisement (The Disguise)
From the series: Photo Souvenirs
Archival Pigment Prints and Embroidery
20.8 x 3.5 inches
From the series: Photo Souvenirs
Archival Pigment Prints and Embroidery
20.8 x 3.5 inches
From the series: Photo Souvenirs
Archival Pigment Prints and Embroidery
20.8 x 3.5 inches
From the series: Self Portrait in Red Curtain
From the series: My Phantoms
I unfortunately could not find an interview with the artist, most likely because she is a French artist and my computer could not translate every webpage, yet on her website under "artist statement" there are various thought provoking passages for each project written by herself, Sara Arvidsson, and Elodie Guida. I also found it difficult to find detailed information on Benitah's projects. I was unable to find any sort of timeline to show when she did which project, and also unable to find dimensions and type of final print of some of the work.
I was immediately drawn to Carolle Benitah's work when I found that she uses old family photographs in her series "Photo Souvenirs." I feel as if she has found her way to solidify her past. She embroiders to mend the memories that don't exactly fit together, and in the process finds herself in that situation. Bentiah states, "I use its decorative function to re-interpret my own history and to expose its failings."
I think this process is amazing, and must have been very trying emotionally. Imagine pushing a needle through a photograph of your face, or your mothers face. How invigorating! I know it's just a photograph, but its amazing how such a small, mundane object can do so much to a person emotionally and mentally. I enjoy all styles of embroidered manipulation: string, beads, and cut and paste. They all speak to my personal aesthetic and I may consider doing something along those lines of manipulation. She embroiders because she has a background in fashion designing. How can I find a similar process to express myself? Another aspect of Benitah's work that I love is the fact that she works in a way that is almost like a photo diary, giving the viewer information that they would not have known otherwise. Letting the viewer into her personal life to show grievance, power, confusion, love, and so many other things. If she would not have documented it, it would have never been known by anyone other than the few people involved. I love knowing secrets, even though its not quite a secret anymore when its put out into the public, but the act of displaying your personal life so confidently makes it very interesting and nostalgic, as if you the viewer were looking at something that maybe you shouldn't be, or maybe something that you have seen many times before, allowing for personal connection. I am also very intrigued by her self portraits. It takes a very strong woman to photograph yourself in such a way. I am most drawn to the one that I have selected to put on this entry. (fourth photograph) It reminds me a lot of the project that I did in concepts last year with the mirrors in place of subject and diary-like text on the four photographs of my sectioned face. She uses it as "a way to exorcise the fear and the anxiety that it's engendered." Another successful way of releasing a life fear visually and conceptually. Her work in "My Phantoms" deals with the subject matter of her son's clothes as a child and her own, displaying them in a way that they look like ghosts. Benitah states, "I took pictures of the clothes that my son wore until he was 6 months old, and I put among them two items of clothing that belonged to me. The photographed clothes are like ghosts of things that existed but I can't find anymore." I could continue to write for days on how I am so interested in every aspect of Benitah's work, yet instead I will not, but I will HIGHLY suggest thoroughly reading all of the excerpts under the "artist statement" section of her personal website, that is where all of the quotes used in this paragraph are from. Some of it is a little difficult to understand because it is translated text, yet spending time figure it out is very rewarding.
BIOGRAPHY
“Carolle benitah attended classes of photography during two years in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des beaux-arts of Luminy in Marseille from 2001 to 2003; the cycle of courses on photography « Collecting Photography » with Christie’s Education in Paris in 2003 and the evening courses in Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Photographie in Arles in 2003-2004, and also art classe in Université du Temps Disponible in Marseille in 2003-2004 and 2008-2009.
She attended many photography workshops in France and foreign countries with Lise Sarfati, Mathieu Pernot, Antoine d’Agata, Klavdji Sluban, Bernard Plossu, Mary Ellen Mark, Alessandra Sanghinetti, Richard Dumas and Jean-Louis Garnell.
In Carolle Benitah’s photographic practice, every subject matter demands equal attention. The private realm is always an object of attack and she makes no distinctions of privilege between calm everyday happenings and tragic events. Her series of photographs, which can be described as photo-diaries, opens a door onto a world that otherwise, would be closed to strangers. In this world the protagonists seem totally unaware of the outsider’s watchful eye, and the portrayed individuals are captured in a state of playfulness, but without loosing any contact with their more vulnerable senses.”
Arvidsson, Sara. "Carolle Benitah." La Fotografia 2008. Web. 12 Sept.
2010.
QUOTES
“That photography has the privilege to capture the physicality of a moment that is on the cusp of nonexistence, is a concept that Benitah frequently explores in her work…Benitah has photographed belongings from an episode in time, which is about to change, or objects that have belonged to or been given by a transitory person…Benitah deals with the painful separation between two lovers, and how the left possessions may have the ability to provoke feelings that aren't inscribed in the actual items. The emotions are projected, and the nostalgic process transforms the items into memorials.”
Arvidsson, Sara. "Carolle Benitah." La Fotografia 2008. Web. 12 Sept.
2010
"Isn’t the grip on the past always slippery and changing as we do and do again according to the new pulsations of our temporal existence?
Links are woven between the photographic mechanism and the functioning of the memory, emergence zone of psychical events. The polaroid pictures lose their colours as years go by. The alteration of this trace is related to the alteration of remembrance. Those pictures do not show much information and sometimes create some artificial effects. The use of fuzziness and blurred outlines, enhances the analogy between those photographs and mental pictures, they restore, more than the state of the subject and the world, an affective tonality often linked to chromatic variations. The different expressions of light reveal sorts of apparitions, indistinct ghostly presences.Through these personal stories, the functioning of remembrance in involved. Time works the concrete inscriptions of photography, as it works the mental pictures of our remembrance. These pictures are nowhere stilled, they are fed by wandering fragments that are displaced, overlap one another, burst out, merge, vanish.” Guida, Elodie. "Carolle Benitah; Twelve." artist statement. 12 Sept. 2010. (translation from French - Hélène Biesse)
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