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Attempts at being oneself/ Claire Cantais Photography 10.02.1999> 28.03.1999

Cantais, like many other female artists, sees photography as a field in which she can apply self-explorations and artistic expressions freely. In her exhibition, 'Attempts at Being Oneself', Cantais is exploring the intimacy of the female body while at the same time evaluating the female mythology of the human kind with a sometimes sarcastic, sometimes critical approach, sometimes reappropriating contrasts. Therefore, while using a traditional style such as nude photography, the artist is making a contemporary expression considering the possibilities the medium offers along with the limits it has. 'The Attempts at Being Oneself' could be evaluated in two consecutive parts: The first part consists of the colour photographs taken in 1998. These can be viewed as the artist's initial approach to the image of woman. In this work which asks nothing more from the models but to completely let go, the female bodies and faces are presented to the gaze of the audience with full saturation. The second part, which consists of black and white images taken during the fall of 1998, could be defined as an expression of issues such as being a couple and femininity. In fact, these images of women come to life with a sense of compassion, desire and loneliness created by the photographs. Finally, in an environment containing real and intimate images, that are not at all deceiving, the viewer begins to know himself and starts to question his own sincerity, readjusting his gaze to find that spot where he could view this story that goes back and forth between himself and the other.

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