Maeva Benaiche
Staccato
Published by LightMotiv, 2023
Size : 16.8 x 22.2 cm
88 Pages – 44 Photos
Softcover
Limited Edition of 700 copies.
ISBN: 9791095118251
Staccato is a cry from the heart, a testimony in suspense on the verge of imploding.
And this explosion is that of Maëva Benaiche. A photographer and stutterer, she navigates between words, seeking to find her place in this world of speech. She allows us to see, hear, and feel her life experience buffeted by her language disorder. In her interactions, her expression is inhibited by the gaze of others, by the memories that assail her, by her own doubts. Her words struggle to keep up with the frantic race of her thoughts. And she exhausts herself trying to break down the barriers of language.
Staccato is a rhythmic, choppy, liberated breathing. Through photography, Maëva Benaiche casts off all restraints, her own and those of others. She lets images flow freely with organic, psychic, and elemental forms. This refined aesthetic is forged in black and white, in centered yet agitated compositions, in the play of movement and blur. Sometimes jarring, prone to cracks and bursts, sometimes liberated, soothed, her photographs instinctively follow the course of a fluid, powerfully introspective narrative. We are carried away by her words and swept away by her visions.
Staccato is imbued with both her delicacy and her flame, and it draws, at the edge of what the photographer reveals to us, a call to openness, an invitation to let go and acceptance.
The preface by Caroline Bénichou , director of the VU' gallery, puts into words the "expression of a desire and a devouring energy" specific to the photography of Maëva Benaiche.