déchiré - part 1

I thought I would share some older and some recent images from the 'déchiré' series.

For those that are not aware, often the aim of my photographs (such as the 'Brunswick st' ,'g.rd.' & 'déchiré ' series) is to bring attention to the beauty which lies hidden in our world. In particular, the beauty that exists in what society abhors and rejects.

Loosely translated from French, déchiré is 'torn'. Aided by Fiona, my personal French translator we searched and finally decided upon a word that we felt really captured the shared essence in this ongoing series of images. Why French? The translated word in French not only seemed to add to each piece in this series, but for the non-French speaking, they are momentarily freed from the prejudice that titles and in particular the loaded meaning in language, provides.  I felt that for this series in particular, the viewer needed to engage with the piece and not be distracted by the English translation or have their experience imbued with the prejudice of the connotations of the word 'torn'.

These images, like any photograph are captured scenes, often tiny in scale and captured with a micro/marco lens. They are then enlarged and re-presented in a different context and scale which allows the beauty that exists to be better appreciated.

These images are all the result of tears, not by myself, but by others and/or by nature. It is a collaboration of sorts that is always shifting, always changing and always becoming something other. Most of these images now no longer exist, or have been drastically further altered. For my part, I feel I have captured the fleeting and transient beauty that was once ignored and now is no more.

                               "yes, sometimes…"  a.k.a déchiré #21

                                                   'A1 #1'

                                                      "le nuage"     a.k.a. déchiré #36

                                                     'déchiré #66'

                                                           'déchiré #8'

                                                 ‘Growing, as if from…’



all photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2013