Mood Board:

A 2010 graduate of the École nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles (ENSP), Dorothée Smith was the breakout star of the Rencontres d’Arles 2012. This 27-year old photographer surprised and charmed viewers with her portraits of teenagers coming to terms with their own sexuality, diaphanous beings inhabiting changing bodies, pushing the boundaries of the masculine and the feminine towards a new gender defying the laws of nature. Smith works around the notion of gender which she tries to deconstruct in her work.

Her work can be seen as an observation of constructions, deconstructions, displacements, and transformations of identity. Photography here rubs shoulders with video, hybrid art and the use of new technologies, and has led to collaboration with a research team from the CNRS/IRCICA (French National Center for Scientific Research) in 2012.

A lot of her photos feature the LGBTQ+ community which shows her diversity of different communities in her work. Her photos are also very personal as the models are usually topless or in underwear, showing the vulnerability of the models and LGBTQ+ community. Also in her work, you can see a lot of intimate scenes, which is what I also want to show in my work.

Photo Analysis:

Technical:

This image looks like it was taken with natural light to capture the raw moment. This image is quite under exposed to give a more saturated feel to it. The aperture for this photo is very quite high and the depth of field is quite sharp. Also, the ISO will be around 400 and the white balance looks to be either daylight or shade.

Visual:

The colour of this photo is very saturated and is quite dark to give it a ominous and mysterious look to it. Also the cropping of this photo leads the eye to the person sitting on the bed. Also, the person being the main thing in the photo makes it stand out a lot, putting the person next to a white wall also helped them stand out.

Contextual:

The historical context of gender is very taboo and Smith tries to go against general stereotypes of gender and the law of nature. Also, all her models are in the LGBTQ+ community, which shows the diversity of different people in that community which again challenges gender.

Conceptual:

Her work portrays teenagers coming to terms with their own sexuality, diaphanous beings inhabiting changing bodies and pushing the boundaries of the masculine and the feminine towards a new gender defying the laws of nature. Her work is around the notion of gender which she tries to deconstruct in her photos.