Juul Kraijer
In 2012 I started photographing a young Frenchwoman. As the trust between us grew, we embarked on an exciting photographic journey together: the props evolving from bean pods and corals to birds and a variety of reptiles, and she evolving from model to muse. In each image her extraordinary tranquil interiority is contrasted with an unsettling element, carefully balanced to neither tip into the horrific nor into the cliché beautiful.
The animals and other additions often seem to merge with the facial features. For a moment the boundaries of the body, as a container of the self, are transcended.
The magic of photography for me lies in being able to extract a lasting image from an ephemeral and near to impossible situation I’ve painstakingly set up in my studio. My images operate on the intersection of illusion and reality.
