Unica 1957

Hans Bellmer made this black and white photograph, Unica, as a moment captured in time. There is a lot of light on the body which is in contrast with the background, it's full of shadows. I can imagine Bellmer carefully adjusting the lights in the studio, to capture and distort our gaze and perspective. You know? What's the best angle? How to capture the body in a way that it will tell you everything about the gaze that is creating it? Bellmer was an interesting character to me. Like many artists, he was working out questions of the psyche, and human relationships. There's this idea of the photograph as a fragment, a trace of the real. Bellmer really puts that into play. Each image in the series a piece of the puzzle... Ultimately, I think Bellmer wants us to think about the relationship between the artist, the model, and the viewer, and how they’re all implicated in this kind of dance of desire. Photography makes all this possible.