Laurence Demaison

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I took these set of images each time I gave one of my dogs a treat. I think that these images are quite amusing mainly from the angle at which all the images were taken. From the high birds eye angle each time my dogs would wait for their treat, they would look up at the treat, which meant that the artificial lighting in the room would create a reflection in their eyes. From this and the way the dogs were sitting, it created a very innocent feeling towards the dogs. One way I could have improved these images, would have been by including the food for the dogs in the image, to make it more obvious what the dogs were looking at, as well as this I think by including the dog food it would've made the images more comedic as the viewers would be able to see what the dogs were staring at. The complexity and ambiguity of Laurence Demaison’s work intrigues me. Her work is made up of self portraits, all of which her identity is stripped. She tells stories, evokes emotion, and forms an image of a being that is distorted, beautiful, repulsed, praised, and everything in between. She has the ability to make many out of one form, which is an idea I would like to continue with. A lot of the ideas that I wish to work with are personal, and yet I have not been able to find a way to make it objective. Demaison has successfully removed her personal identity from her work, while still allowing her ideas to flow through. Some of her work is beautiful, while other pieces are frightful, and evocative. I would like to experiment with creating images in a way that Demaison does, and possibly solidifying them on metal to tell a story that what has been done cannot be changed, yet all emotions and events create the being that you are today. Laurence Demaison is a French experimental photographer and visual artist who works mostly with self-portraits. She has a particular interest in the female portrait and body. (Galerie BMG, 2009)

Usually once images are developed and printed, when people try photographing them, there is usually always a reflection in them from a light source which majority of people find annoying. This task was set, to manipulate the reflections, by photographing the printed images under different types of light sources. The first row of images were taken under artificial lighting in the classroom as I held the images up to the light it created a square looking shape. The second row of images were taken using natural light, however half of the image was placed behind an object, creating a shadow over half the image. For the third row of images, I was focusing more on the shadows rather than the actual light. The source light used was natural, but I places the photograph behind some railing, to create the stripped effect. I think these vertical lines created by the railing worked well with the image as it divided up the image into equal sections as the glass balls are also equally split up and equally distributed through the image. One set of images is composed of time exposures registering carefully orchestrated performances for the camera, during which Demaison creates representations of the outlines and surface of her body with layered, multiple exposures of her own hands. These read as both traces of a performance and the sort of simultaneous fluid yet frozen moments to which Butoh dance aspires.Her technical virtuosity leads us to art that revels in the extremes of visual perception. Demaison’s photographs remind me of the distortions of Kertesz, the inventive playfulness of Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy, and the multiple perspectives of the Cubists — but her work is clearly her own. Ces dernières années, Laurence Demaison oriente ses recherches vers une démarche plasticienne, expose ses dessins et conçoit des sculptures dans un univers proche des séries photographiques qui l’ont fait connaitre. Elle s’autorise l’utilisation de mannequins comme modèles de ses photographies, ce qui lui permet de dépasser les limites de l’autoportrait et de concevoir des mises en scènes spectaculaires. Avec une maitrise totale du noir et blanc, de la prise de vue au tirage, la photographe joue avec les limites du medium comme dans ses monotypes, autoportraits directs au flash métamorphosés en épreuves uniques et lumineuses. Pour cette exposition, la photographe a sélectionné des travaux récents et des tirages de ce qu’elle appelle ses "petits parachutes", ébauches de séries ou prises de vues isolées dont elle a redécouvert les négatifs. I decided to edit my images even more, as I realised that the formal elements I wanted to show in my images could be emphasised even more with heavier editing. Using iPhoto again, I turned my brightness down more on the images and exaggerated the contrast even more. I think this helped blend the body with the location together, as well as emphasising the tones and textures in the images, which I have always liked about the effect.I followed Brandt's theme, by photographing the body and also the location of the photograph

Originally, Demaison worked with a model, but she eventually began taking photos only of herself, partly to limit expenses. “She doesn’t feel that they’re self-portraits at all,” notes Bernard Gerson, director of Galerie BMG. “They’re not about her. She’s using the reflecting and distorting qualities of the water or the glossy paper to make phantoms, ghosts of herself. She disappears from the image.” The photographic work of Laurence Demaison is exclusively constituted by self-portraits from 1993 to 2009. Since 2010 she occasionally uses mannequins or dolls. The used techniques – shot, development, print – are analogicals and realized by the author. No particular manipulation intervenes beyond the shot (except chemical inversion of films for some series)Laurence Demaison è un fotografa e artista visiva francese, nata nel 1965 . Dopo aver studiato architettura a Strasburgo si avvicina alla fotografia da autodidatta. Il suo lavoro consiste essenzialmente nell’autoritratto. Apal'kin's work has a direct view on to the model. The shots were taken with a studio lighting as it can be more controlled than natural lighting. Using studio lighting is perfect to use as you can place it anywhere and make shadows to create a contrast between light and dark. However, I do believe the final shots does have a soft affect left by the studio lighting. Arms and hands can create leading lines which this photographer used to make the mirror the focus point. The mirror is on a rule of third which catches the viewers attention further. I believe that Apal'kin's work is usually taken with a large depth of field. I purvey that the photographer did not use a tripod and had taken this image with an f stop of 8. The photo was taken at a middle point, only revealing the upper half. LODLP : Can you tell us about your winning project? Has the prize had an influence on your subsequent work ? For the 7th installment in this series, we’re presenting you with the 2002 edition of the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie (then known as the Prix de la Fondation CCF pour la Photographie). Famous French publisher Robert Delpire was appointed its artistic advisor. The winning photographers were Rip Hopkins (UK) and Laurence Demaison (FR). We spoke with Laurence Demaison about her experience with the prize and the effect it had on her career.

I would like to explore creating more abstract images, through further experimentation, using the set of images I have just created in my final outcomes. I want to do this as I really want my project to emphasise on textures and tones and after looking at this set of images, I realise that they include these two themes repeatedly in each image. Another thing I don't really like about these images, is that they don't fit with the abstract style of work that I have been focusing on in my project. I would like to follow on from this, by taking a second set of images using I remember that after the call, I didn’t know what to do, so I took a long, hot bath. But it didn’t last too long—there was work to do! The HSBC team is incredibly efficient and competent and kind. It was such a pleasure to work with them in such wonderful and professional conditions. Such conditions are rare. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them again and again..Laurence Demaison : It was a magical experience! From the very first moment, when Robert Delpire called me in person. (I still haven’t recovered!) Overall, I chose the exam question human figure but dived in deeper by choosing the theme of 'distortion'. I have taken five shoots but three mini shoots in one. I liked my theme because it allowed me to improve my photo shop skills as it is computer based. However, I had taken my initiative and researched five photographers to take inspiration from and expand my ideas. When looking at the photographer,Brno Del Zou; I had noticed that they had printed out their images and manipulated it in person, possibly so they have a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve. I have taken this idea and was inspired by their work and their take on distortion. So I was encouraged to take on the challenge too.