FRANCESCA SERAVALLE CURATOR





MOTHER NATURE
by Erik Kessels
Essay by Francesca Seravalle
PUBLISHED BY RVB 2015

The book presents a collection of photographs of women posing in front of flowered backgrounds, including flowerbeds in public and private gardens, fields and beyond. This universal theme, which he identified within his own photo collection, allows us to observe both the repetition and difference that interweave, yielding a common narrative. This book gives us the opportunity to move between places, times, generations and cultures, the individual stories and foreign faces of which create a universe within which we see our common and immutable practices come together. In his book, Erik Kessels renders these private photographs visible anew, creating a visual anthropology of lived moments.

Essay:



Sometimes taking a photograph is more than the capturing of a moment

or an act of communication: it can be an act of love. At other times the

photograph can precede or follow the act. ‘Love story’ is the theme

linking all the lives in these pictures. The invisible conversations that

free our interpretations of the photographic images.

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It is an old picture that lies at the back of the drawer

Lost to oblivion

Out of focus

Censored for the kids

That competes again on a second-hand market stall

He finds women beautiful and wants to collect their lives

He keeps them in a book linking them in a unique story of love

––––------––––– She is Japanese, Swiss and Russian ––––––------–––

––––------------------––––– She is verbose –––––------------------––––

He speaks with photographs

–-––––––– Shy, she refuses to look straight at the camera –––––––––

He is hidden behind it

–-––– She is secretive or brazen, strives to strike the right pose ––-––

She searches for the right background to make her look more beautiful

He tries to capture for all time an image of their harmony

–-––––---------––– She dives into a flourishing field –-–––------–----––

–-––––-------------––– She picks a hydrangea –-––––--------------–––

–-––––---------------––– She leans on a tree –-––––---------------–––

–-–––------------------––– She is on holiday –-––––-----------------–––

–-–--------–– She entangles herself in an oleander bush –-–--------––

–-––––--------------––– She shows her garden –-––––--------------–––

He photographs their intimate garden. Hidden, so difficult to find

He directs the composition of the secret set of photos

––––-------– She is a little magenta spot on a green background –––-------––

––––------––-------––– She is a tulip between tulips ––––––--------------–––

––––– She wears a lance-shaped skirt like the palm branch behind her –––––

––-–-----–– She becomes the colour of the lake like a chameleon –––------––

––––– She is the woman in three different ages, each one behind roses –––––

––––------––-------––– She poses twice in the same place in front of a

cornfield as if that were the only possible place to be ––––------––-------–––

He binds the beloved duo of woman and flower

––––--------––-------––– She blossoms from a bush ––––------––---------–––

She is a young flourishing plant with pride of place in the middle of the garden

-- She is a decreasing love, the fading of beauty by the passing of the years --

---–--––– She is old, little camouflaged by floral-patterned clothes –-––----–

––––– She is marginal or juxtaposed with dry branches and dead plants –-–––

–––---–-––––She is the unchanged passion of an old love story ––––--––-–––

––––----------------––––– She is an everyday love ––––------–----------––––

––––------––----------------––– She is used and mixed to others lives for

showing the feminine side of nature by a collector –--------------------–––––

---–-––– She is the cycle of nature in all its phases, the power of life ---–--––

She is the Woman

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She is Mother Nature.

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