I was a sculptor for several years in my youth, and I've always been fascinated by the story of Camille Claudel and her tumultuous relationship with Rodin. The story is a mixture of injustice, madness, isolation and the machismo that characterised the art world at the time.
In particular, the work "La Danaïde", often associated with Camille Claudel, but signed by Rodin, is a poignant symbol of this unfair and strange relationship.
This injustice mixed with love and mutual fascination contributed to the deterioration of Claudel's mental health, leading her to spend 30 years of her life in a psychiatric hospital, before finally dying in total anonymity.
It was this story that inspired me to do a photo shoot on this theme, and I suggested the idea to my friend Elana. The shoot was particularly memorable for its intensity and the way it unfolded. Elana posed for me to make a clay sketch of Danaïde, a physically demanding and almost unbearable pose. I had to work quickly because she was really suffering.
She transformed this suffering magnificently during the shoot, embodying the artist's madness to perfection. The process was magical and unexpected, sending us both into a kind of creative trance. I love the result of this shoot.
Then I received some surprising comments on social networks about a particular photo.
One person saw in it a reference to the water jets used in psychiatry at the time, a practice of which I was unaware. In addition, many people saw in this image an allusion to symbolic infanticide, evoking both Camille Claudel's personal losses and the destruction of her work, stifled by an artist unable to accept being surpassed by his pupil.
It's fascinating to see how art can evoke such deep and varied emotions and interpretations.
You can see the whole shoot in the Historical 2 gallery - almost at the end of the gallery.
I've also added some beautiful Black & White versions in the Black & White 2 folder.
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A bientôt
Yohann
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