MOTS D'HIVER
Sebastian Dicenaire
Je dois vous avouer que je n'arrive pas, même avec la meilleure volonté du monde, à regarder vos Dentelles comme un objet esthétique neutre, même si vous rendez toute sa grâce et son élégance à cet objet malaimé. Ce n'était d'ailleurs certainement pas votre but. Je suis très sensible par contre à l'univers de vos autres photographies, à leurs teintes évanescentes, à leur douce mélancolie, à la sensibilité à fleur de peau qu'on y devine, au dandysme vénéneux à peine voilé qui y flotte, à leur délicieuse et presque douloureuse volupté…
Al Evans
Maël Baussand is a feral photographer, une artiste sauvage, taking a hard look at her own softness. She is exploring herself in the only practical way a real artist CAN explore herself – from a great distance. Her extended self-portrait is relentless, cold and hot simultaneously, intimate at an objective step of removal. Looking at the images that make it up is a bit like viewing pictures from some security camera. One might say her photographs are unforgiving, but it is obvious that nothing in them wants to be forgiven. Her work is both about her and Not About Her, and her self-portraiture avoids turning to narcissism.“A Forest” is a series of nine untitled images showing an encounter between an anonymous young woman and an equally anonymous young man. We never see the faces of either participant, and only occasionally see parts of their heads. It seems to be a sensual encounter, but there is little explicit sexuality. Although it is non-violent except for the barest hint of a scratch on the girl’s chest, it seems to be only ambiguously consensual. In the end, the girl is left along, holding her skirt up to expose her thighs. Still at least half-virginal?In “La Mare”, the young woman seemingly discovers an undergarment on the bank of a pond, dons it, and interacts with the pond’s water and with the brightly lit and strongly colored vegetation and mud. In the penultimate moment, she seems to be on the verge of licking a smear of mud off her arm. In the end, we’re uncertain whether she’s washing off the mud to leave the pond, or scooping out a hole in the bottom of the pond to climb into.In “Wild”, her identity becomes mixed with that of a burro.Finally, in “Nature’s Child”, she reveals her oneness with nature. Now nude, she rises from the forest floor and climbs a hill. The lighting is a bit dim and the colors desaturated, giving the impression of antiquity and, perhaps, of a protective covering that obscures as it protects.I find a depth, a freedom, and a courage in Baussand’s work that are a huge relief from the insipidity, the simplistic cosmology, the shallowness, the mind-numbing monotony of so much that tries to sell itself to my perceptions as “art”. Mlle. Baussand dares to follow her muse to the core of things, and to return with the pictures she finds there.When I first looked at her images, I was inclined to quibble about some of their technical aspects. I thought the lighting and treatment of color in some of them could be improved, from a photographic standpoint. The composition often appears accidental. I still find “Pipes Story” almost unintelligibly dark. But for the others, I have come around to the point of view that they are exactly as they should be. For example, “Nature’s Child” is dim, as seen through a mist, with darkened edges. I’m quite sure I could “bring it up” to add a bit more drama in Photoshop (and I may be a bit frightened by the fact that I would probably do so if the images were mine). But upon re-examination, I decide that the images are exactly as dim as they need to be, and that the author has complete control over the telling of the story.I would rank Maël Baussand among the best artistic photographers in a country known for great photography.
Julian Flynn
C'est du travail très intéressant, un peu choquant peut-être pour moi comme homme, mais d'une bonne façon - tu me montres des choses que je n'ai jamais vraiment ‘regardées’ de trop près - ou plutôt, mes 'girlfriends’ n'ont jamais voulu partager avec moi…
Tu as vraiment une vision sur le monde - je crois que on pourrait reconnaître une photo 'Maël Baussand' parmi une foule d'autres photos.
D'abord elles sont des photos très concernées avec la féminité - mais ce qui me plait c'est qu'elle ne donnent pas un sens d’être 'contre’ la masculinité - je ne me sens pas exclu par tes photos - peut-être c'est parce que tes photos sont sensuelles, séduisantes presque - les couleurs chaudes, la lumière douce, et le jeune homme (c'est ton boyfriend?) est traité avec un respect visuel, il n'est pas 'victime’ de ton appareil photo.
Les couleurs sont très belles et mesurées - chaque série a sa palette de couleurs et des tons qui renforcent l'unité de chaque série Il y a quelque chose du rève, ou de l'amour et le désir mais souvenus de loin.
En tout j'aime bien ce que tu fais - c'est subtil, sensuel et fascinant.
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