SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

A  study of the swans at the Seine river in Paris.

 

Paris/France, 2016-2019

Multiple exposures in film black and white medium format film

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“Everyday,
I walk by an island on the River Seine
A flock of swans lives there
I watch their ballet on the water
While they dance
Their daily show
They follow me
Expecting more then just being fed
They expect to be admired
These wild animals
They need to be on a pedestal above the water
To survive their urban life”

Text: Emilia Brandão Carneiro

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Artist Statement:

 

I have worked with photography since I was introduced to a camera, age 15. It always felt the camera was an extension of my eyes, brain and heart that I could carry with my hands. I started photographing with an old Hasselblad medium format film camera with 50mm lenses, so most of my work is still done the same way. I like to experiment with film and face the surprises of the results in the darkroom when developing films with multiple exposures on camera, such as with this series.

All my artistic inspirations and references since I was young, in Cinema and Photography, were from France in the 20s to 40s. I was fascinated by everything from Bresson, Godard, Carné to Kertész, Cartier-Bresson, Atget, Man Ray, Le Gray…therefore living in Paris was always a dream.

Years later I married a Frenchman, we moved to Paris with our baby daughter and suddenly I lost my father in a tragic car accident. I mourned alone. We lived close to an island by the Seine where there were flocks of swans living and they kept me company on my daily walks around the island. Their majestic dance made my life in Paris even more fictional. 

My intention was to study these animals that called my attention and are so famously known for their grace and elegance. My goal was to portray an ordinary side of their existence in that daily environment, challenging the preconceptions and cliche around swans imagery, and approach them with some type of familiarity and intimacy I believe to have built with them over the years, living an urban life in a dreamy and romantic ideal. As my own relationship to my journey in Paris, which is also implicit in their existence, but also revealing their power to transcend beauty in space and time. The aesthetic I chose was mainly blurred and out of focus as that’s how I felt most days during my journey and it combined to their expression of movement and flow on the water.

 

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**Sentimental Journey** presents a series of black and white photographs depicting swans on the Seine in Paris. It might sound a bit cliché, but that’s precisely what makes this project fascinating. There are images that show something different from what we would expect: a swan twisting, looking unattractive and somewhat disturbed, challenging the conventional image we associate with these graceful birds. We also notice, of course, the “Brandão signature”: the usual tenderness and generosity in her gaze (which may have caught the attention of the curators at PhotoVogue, who awarded four images from the series).

However, overall, in this exhibition, this Brazilian who has made Madrid her home conveys a sense of familiarity. It’s like going to a concert of a musician or composer we know well, seeing a ballet, a play, or a movie for the tenth time. Being with close and intimate people. Eating ordinary food. In the past, we might have used the classic term, meaning “very typical,” familiar. Some might say it’s boring, but the familiar is what grounds us, comforts us. In a world obsessed with novelty, Brandão presents images that find their value in the representation of what we already know.

The theme and technique may seem ordinary and common, but the result is romantic, charming, and special. With **Sentimental Journey**, Brandão invites us to recalibrate our values. Her work suggests that the special is not in the new, but in the familiar. The artist chooses reflection and introspection over distraction. And in doing so, she gifts us with images that make us dream.

 

Text: Ana Araújo, Galería F&deO. Exhibition Sentimental Journey. Madrid, 2022

 

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EXHIBITIONS and AWARDS:

 

–  Award “Open Walls 2023,” – Arles Festival by British Journal of Photography,  Arles, 23

– Solo exhibition, Laufen Showroom / Madrid, 23

– Solo exhibition, Gallery F&deO / Madrid, 22

– Honorable Mention – 18th Julia Margaret Cameron Prize, 22

– Selected in a Photo Vogue, 22

– Official selection for the IPA Prize, 22