Two recurring faces, countless characters and stories. Reality, fiction, beauty, sadness, identity, longing, memory and loneliness.
These are the characteristics of the work of two French photographers, Elsa Parra and Johanna Benaïnous, who have been working together since 2014. The duo’s trademark is to mix fictional and real elements in their stories, which they tell by putting themselves on stage as models, stylists, set designers and photographers, in the guise of different characters. Their sensitive and meticulous works explore geographical, social and cultural milieus, interpreted through photography.
“We are like sponges, absorbing the landscapes, people and atmosphere around us. As they compress us, we spit out a colourful liquid that is a reflection of our society.”
Their creative method is on the borderline between photography and theatre. Mise-en-scène and storytelling are an essential part of the creative process, and the making of images is preceded by careful observation and preparation. For hours or even days, the girls take on their roles, placing themselves in the inner worlds of fictional characters, often inspired by personal or real-life stories, as well as their external surroundings. The photographs produced are an imprint of this multi-faceted creative process that requires total involvement.
Elsa and Johanna’s works use the method of autofiction to create strange visual worlds that might be reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s films or David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series.
The exhibition, a selection from three different series by Elsa and Johanna, takes you into a different universe. Beyond the Shadows, shot in Calgary, Canada, uses images taken from a film to tell the story of the melancholy of everyday life for mothers, daughters and girlfriends living on the outskirts of the city.