Alive
Collaborative project
Series Alive : The reconstructed body. An hommage to life
Oct. 2024
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The present collaborative project was born out of a conversation and element of surprise. We both share the same interest in showing women in different stages of their lifes and their personal contributions.
Our identities are complex. Juxtapositions define our identity. One struggles to define who one is depending on one’s experience. Drawn to photograph women she finds interesting, often those on the margin of society, Sophirat explores each personal experience to make this series for future generations in a compreensive contemporary portraiture record of our era.
In her series Alive: The reconstructed body. An hommage to life Sophirat explores how Breast cancer became part of women’s daily life photographing women in their intimacy. Cancer is put in the center of the frame. The artist exploits the subtlety of the process to create poetic images. Each frame is simple and straightforward in its approach as to not overlap the message. The simplicity of means contrasts with the complexity of the mortal carcinoma. Photographs are windows into another world, a world of inner struggle and hope. The few objects such as the green plant or vase in the series can be revelatory and magical as a way to transport one to another level.
Green is known to be the color of life and of hope. The tree of life here represented by the cunning presence of green is capable of generating magic. Such as nature, the body heals itself. And remains alive.
The nine portraits depict the nude subject in various positions in an anonymous hotel room displaying her scars. Direct closeness to the subject matter gives an idea of what the person undergone and struggled in order to overcome her condition. The staged poses direct the gaze to the body’s scars focusing on the wisdom, intelligence and incredible strength of the portrayed. The woman looks into or away from the camera in a natural attitude without shame or self pity showing her new body with dignity. Her reconstructed breast and nipple with a long scar are her new natural elements. Such as a washing machine, the subject undergone a centrifugation process having to adapt to a new life. The scars that left a mark on the body forever work simultaneously as a reminder of suffering but do act also as a sign of overcoming obstacles and embracing life. The reconfigured body transformed by surgeries serve as a landscape of landmarks of before and after. Working on rebuilding oneself, the images display not a victim, but someone steering the ship. Our body is prepared to answer what life throws at our way.
Cancer makes one closer to whom one is supposed to be. It’s like a rebirth. A celebration of life in all its complexity. The determination to overcome oneself.
The series end wonderfully. The last frame where a subject is depicted laying in the bathtub with her body up refers to Ophelia’s XIX century oil painting, a character from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river.
With her eyes closed in a quiet pose we don’t know if she is resting her body or if her soul is wandering. The viewer remains mesmerized and puzzled.
Writer : ADM
Photographer : Sophirat Muangkum
