Boek / book: Lore Stessel – The Body Will Thrive

In The body will thrive, Lore Stessel col­lects ima­ges with dif­fe­rent sub­jects: a moun­tain lands­ca­pe seen from the sky, ice walls rising from the water, a swim­ming man and woman, peo­p­le dan­cing, clo­se-ups of plants, details of head, hands, etc. To almost all of the­se ima­ges, the expres­si­on ​“in moti­on” applies: the maker of the ima­ges can move, as can the sub­ject of the images.

Lore Stessel mani­pu­la­ted the ana­lo­gue prin­ting pro­cess in the dar­kroom by pain­ting her can­vas­ses befo­re­hand with light-sen­si­ti­ve emul­si­on and pou­ring the devel­o­per over cer­tain areas.

In this body of work Lore recon­ci­les three gestu­res: the gestu­re of the pho­to­grap­her and the impor­tan­ce of the right deci­si­on in choosing what moment to cap­tu­re; the gestu­re of the dan­cer and the cap­tu­ring of a frac­ti­on of their move­ment; and fina­ly, the gestu­re of the pain­ter, which (re)introduces the move­ment to the still imag, during the devel­o­ping process.

Throughout the­se mee­tings bet­ween pho­to­grap­her and dan­cer, mutu­al ​“trust” bet­ween both part­ner is essen­ti­al. The enti­re cre­a­ti­ve pro­cess takes pla­ce within the com­pel­ling sus­pen­se of time, always accom­pa­nied by a dee­ply human awar­ness of its fleeting­ness and value.

Text: Marie-Pascale Gildemyn