A woman sitting in a bathtub, not only bathing in water but in colors of red and pink as well. You watch, you are the voyeur, watching her without being noticed yourself. A lot of the images of the French photographer Benedicte Desrus have this voyeuristic aspect.
This aspect of voyeurism is even exaggerated by the way benedicte is approaching her subject and her working process.
The images are private, not intended for my eyes
The people are photographed in a quick and raw style, nearly as they were taken by a webcam, or some kind of spycam. Sometimes you see only parts of the body or very spontaneous compositions, like the photos were taken by accident and not intended to be seen. These aspects are influencing the way we are experiencing the people in her work. I always have the feeling the images are not really intended for my eyes, they are belonging not to the public, they are private. And that is just what’s making her work strong. The vulnerability shared, the raw direct way of photographing and the almost ashamed feeling watching, being the voyeur.
The work of Benedicte Desrus is a good example of a development we see in art photography and film. Maybe influenced by the real life television and our hunger to watch ordinary people in all aspects of their lifes. A lot of photographers are using this real life aspect in their work. The gap between art and ordinary photography was never so small as it is today. And in my opinion that’s a good thing. It gives artists freedom of expression and new ways of communication. A way of expression reflecting our voyeuristic mass media culture.
