We received very interesting material, which we found not only beautiful, but also extremely poignant in terms of meaning. The thought illustrated by these photographs provokes reflection, demands a revision of previous views on the beauty of nature and the human body.
Here is what the author wrote about her series:
When I photographed the first wrinkles on the faces of people close to me or the roots of trees in a city park, I didn't think that a photo project would emerge from these images; I was exercising perceptiveness and focus similar to the game of looking for differences in two seemingly identical pictures - but in this case I was looking for similarities.
Similarities at the level of composition, in lines, shapes and textures between the human body, its fragments, and selected elements of nature. Sometimes the analogies came after some time, after many attempts to match the elements, after prolonged visual searches, failures and changes of concept. Other times, the similarities were obvious from the very beginning, manifested suddenly and sometimes completely by accident. Hence the title of the series: Visual Exercises, which loosely translated in Polish means visual exercise. The title was meant to illustrate how the diptychs were created.
A little later, I came across a quote by American writer, author of the novel "The Color Purple," Alice Walker. Walker states: "In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be twisted in strange ways and still be beautiful." This quote has become the buckle that binds the diptychs together.
The diptychs show non-obvious analogies between the human body and nature. By comparing that which is tainted, burdened with imperfections, old, damaged by time, wounded, with elements of nature, which in the common perception are devoid of defects and which we do not judge through the prism of age and aesthetic imperfections, I try to "disenchant" the way we perceive the human body and show its beauty in ugliness, old age, sagging skin, wrinkles and scars.
Detachment from nature has led to a distortion of the definition of beauty, which must meet standards that are exorbitant and developed by us, but completely conventional. Through juxtaposition with fragments of nature, these requirements cease to exist and a new view of our corporeality is possible.
Alicia Brodowicz - Born in Cracow, graduated from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Translator by profession. Graduate of the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava. Winner of photography awards and prizes (B&W Child Photo Competition (1st place in the "portrait" category (2015), International Photography Awards - finalist, IRIS Awards - finalist). Winner of DEBUTS 2016. honorable mention in the Tokyo International Awards (2018). She mainly works in fine art photography and subjective documentary photography, preferring black and white photography.
