“Elle” exhibtion. A staged photo documentation

On February 2011 a joint exhibition by the photo artist Farideh and the actress Larissa translates a biographical story under the title ” Elle – Portraits of a soul journey”  in an unusual way. Under the themes of passion, self-discovery, deception, dissolution, isolation and insight, haunting images document the development of a woman who frees herself from an illusory world of vanities and drugs, overcomes victim roles and reconnect to herself through painting.

The main character of all subjects is the actress Larissa B. During the shoots for” Elle – Portraits of a soul journey” which took two years to realize, Larissa B. processed key experiences from her own biography. The name of the exhibition “Elle” is synonymous with femininity as such, the French pronoun for “Elle” . At the same time, Larissa’s personality is included through the first letter of the first name “L”. The actress and photographer developed the ideas for the pictures together.

Quote Farideh: “She revealed her feelings and I formed pictures from her stories that capture these experiences. For me, the attraction lay in staging a true story photographically and for Larissa this project was an opportunity to post-process what she had experienced “. Quote Larissa: “My drive was not always to let everything go through me in silence, but to tell my story and make a point. I knew that Farideh is still able to implement drastic topics in an aesthetic and sophisticated way” . But there is more to it than the processing and retelling of experiences, as Farideh emphasizes: “Every life story is exemplary in its own way. The longing to take refuge in substitute acts or in material substitutes exists in each of us. Behind this is fear of the unknown, the ephemeral, the dark, which we do not want to turn to”.