Convalescence. Docu Fiction (Colour+B&W)

The series focuses on the process of invisible illness and recovery and the role of nature in it. It is said that any trauma wound requires a new start of the world in order to heal- longing for a new beginning, at the same time as fearing it. The images, taken between 2019 and 2022, play with the tradition of photography as a scientific tool or document representing “reality”. However, there is reinterpreting, recontextualizing, decoding in the form of a psychological collage or dream. Like dreams these images enable us to explore conflict, healing trauma, and understanding contemplation as process. The images were taken in Derbyshire, considered the heart of England, and in particular in Eyam, where the plague in 1666 destroyed whole families. There are other trauma-related “documents” like the “Second Sacrifice” poster, an “I am shielding” fragile note on a door, a newspaper of the time. The work is projecting a “tabula rasa” or fiction at the same time that casts documents, in a game of recontextualization. The series highlights the question of genre in photography and poses the question of the role of photography in relation to knowledge and healing. Could we say that images heal as much as we say it about music? In a world that today is physically and emotionally ill, still coming out from the impact of a pandemic and facing ecological and humanitarian unprecedented challenges, it seems important to understand illness as a passage and way to help braking with detrimental patterns.