https://www.thefluxreview.com/charlotte-fraigneau-interview/
Entropic Breakfast
In the project Entropic Breakfast I have been exploring and photographing the notion of decay.
I photographed the degradation of my fridge contents and documented slime mould overtaking, holding time still, countering progress and improvement, evolving towards disaster. Taking time to think about it. Fridge, uncontrolled dark box. Behind its closed door: life, death, regeneration, the dehumanising aspect of modern existence. This project embodies the psychology of the age and the relentless system of growth. It gives a glimpse into what happens when the system gives up on looking for solutions to its mistakes.
Biological decay is invisible, yet suddenly apparent if you let it take over parts of your fridge. The global warming crisis is invisible to the eye due to its large scale. This work attempts to bring it back to a human scale in order to create an emotional understanding of the emergency.
Mould grows, like us humans do on the planet, taking over and destroying what is essential to our survival. For this project the mould is constantly growing, taking over and colonising the space it inhabits. It can come back from the dead; it is neither animal nor plant. It is mysterious and beautiful. This project documents the growth of the mould over time on a planet structure in order to create a sense of loss over time as the planet becomes overwhelmingly covered by Physarum polycephalum (also known as slime mould).
This project celebrates the artful and awful nature of a space taken over and out of human control. Looking at mould, like looking at humans is like looking at something both celestial and microcosmic simultaneously.
Slime mould is an intriguing intelligent single cell organism growing in cool, humid dark places and feeding on organic debris (here oat flakes). In this installation the slime mould is eating away at the oats in the same way as humans eat away the Earth. Creating a provoking installation.
Tentacular Emotions
Tentacular Emotions. Clay and Newspaper. 2020.
Condense Configuration
Emotion mapping
The world at your fingertips
Black Mirror
Performing Arts School - Show
First time photographing a show on stage and it was great fun! Something I look forward to doing again.
Guitarist
Guitarist in the studio. Experimenting with different compositions, backgrounds and lighting techniques. This experience was definitely a challenge and learning curve for me, both in the studio and later on with the editing process. Always very excited about new learning opportunities to make me more comfortable out of my comfort zone.
Drummer
Commercial work - Drummer photographed in the studio.
Experimental Editing - Under Your Roof
Editing old photographs from the Under Your Roof series. At the time when I took these photographs I did not like them (originally made for a stop motion video) so they weren’t edited. Two years later, here I am experimenting and enjoying editing them.
Deluge
In this ongoing series called Deluge I explore the mental, physical and emotional responses to being overwhelmed. Approaching this subject as a universal state through near literal interpretations, a single figure is subjected to the suffocating consequences of drowning, being buried alive and set on fire. Through underwater photography and digital manipulation, each act represents a psychological state connected with being overwhelmed. In portraying the metaphysical through extreme circumstances, I can emphasise the depth of an emotion which affects us all. In addition to this, the series Deluge challenges the notion of time. As we are experiencing a feeling of distress, time stands still and 1 minute may not seem like the usual 60seconds. This set of images illustrate time slowing down as we travel through heavy affliction.
The photograph Drowning won third place in the Eaton Portrait Prize 2018 - Cambridge School of Art | Cambridge UK.
The series Deluge took part in the Cambridge School of Art degree Show 2018 / Cambridge, as well as the Free Range Show 2018 at The Old Truman Brewery / Brick Lane, London.
Under Your Roof
Under Your Roof - Nature is now at risk more than ever before. As the population of the planet grows, the forests are being destroyed, the oceans and air polluted. We don’t stop and look at the damage we make. Everyday we consume and waste what is given to us, we exploit the planet. Soon enough the earth’s natural resources, which are vital to the survival of the human population, will reach its limit. To keep and improve our beautiful oceans and forests we need to make some changes. Some of those changes can start in our everyday life behaviour. By only using two fish and digital manipulation, this photograph represents the idea of the damage done to nature due to our actions. Food, water, forests, and wildlife are all renewable resources that need our attention to help them regenerate. Each of us can contribute to this vital action by looking at what we can change in our everyday life to reduce the damage done to the environment.
This photograph was shortlisted for the Sustainability Art Prize 2018 - Cambridge School of Art | Cambridge UK.
Workshop about lighting 💡
Lighting, to me, is one of the hardest things to learn as a photograher. These photographs, in a similar style to Gregory Crewdson, are the result of great team work and a few hours trying to understand how to use artificial light at its best. As a location we were given the university laundry room. You would be suprised how great a laundry room is for a lighting workshop!
These photographs were producted as a group and edited by myself only.
Enjoy the rest of the week!
In the style of... Martin Parr
Last year, for a presentation, we were given a photographer to study and produce photographs in a similar style to them. The photographer I was given was Martin Parr. To me Martin's Parr photographs are not beautiful but honest and relevant. By photographing spanish tourists in a french ski station, I tried to reproduce how Martin Parr captures the English working class in a rather grotesque, unusual and critical way.
I felt that the environment of a ski resort was ideal to capture images that exhibit the characteristics in his work, garish, candid, real. There was a paradox between the feelings I have about his work and the feelings I have about the subject matter of the photographs I took, namely the frequency of Coca Cola advertising, the Spanish Children and the indulgent nature of skiing. Thus making the photographs even more relevant.
Later on in May I met Martin Parr at the Photo London Show and asked him his thoughts about the photographs. He was complimentary about the work, saying it definitely captured his style. However, he also provided me with some useful, constructive criticism. If I had used more flash it would have emulated his style even more effectively.
➲ Have a great week!
Do not hesitate to contact me ↣ charlotte.fraigneau@gmail.com
Southwold
A few weekends ago, I went out to take some b&w shots of the beautiful seaside in Southwold, with a Mamiya RZ67 Medium Format camera. Luckily it was not a rainy day but a long exposure was definitely not a possibility, the wind did not allow it! It has been such a great experience to go out there with an analogue camera looking at the town in a completely different way than I used to see it in the past as a tourist. Dealing with the weather, light, and composition on location taught me a lot, nothing better than learning in such a lovely place!
➵ Check out my Instagram and Twitter account ➵
Children and Technology
Abandoned for technology - Photographed with the Pentax K1000 and printed on fiber base paper
Isn't it strange to see a child choosing an electronic gadget to play with instead of a real toy?
For this project called Abandoned for Technology, I photographed different children of all ages choosing technology over real objects. From the age of three to thirteen, these little girls choose to find a recipe on the internet instead of a recipe book or even playing beauty salons on the tablet rather than playing with a real doll. Intrigued and sad are the words to describe my feelings regarding this new generation of children replacing toys with an addiction to technology.
As well as this photography project, I wrote an essay available by clicking on the following link ↠↠↠
How is the relationship between children and technology translated through photography?
Uninhibited
Based on a poem called ‘Howl’ by Allen Ginsberg, these photographs are part of a series of six images. The poem is written from a personal point of view of a young American homosexual, the poet himself. He describes the negative influences of social pressure, drugs and stereotypes. Primarily that, social pressure does not always allow individuals to be themselves and can push them to feel lonely, anxious and self-conscious. Inspired also, by the artists Erik Johansson, Annie Leibovitz and Man Ray among others, the photograph represents the elegance and fragility of a body. This body is representing what is a lost soul trying to stand up for herself and accept who she is despite stereotypes and criticism.
Being yourself without the influence of anything else.
This photograph took part in the Fresh Ideas exhibition in February 2016 at the Changing Spaces Gallery | Cambridge and was also shortlisted for the Anglia Ruskin University Eaton Portrait Prize 2016.
http://shutterhub.org.uk/blog/eaton-portrait-prize-2016-shortlist-announced-at-anglia-ruskin-university