Senta Simond Rayon Vert, Foam Amsterdam

Senta Simond

Rayon Vert

Foam Museum, Amsterdam
7 September - 28 October 2018

Senta Simond's work focuses on an intimate approach to the female body and portraiture. Her photographs feature a circle of acquaintances and respond to existing, and too often clichéd, representation of femininity. Simond doesn’t take her photographs on a built set but against a white background, often a white wall in the domestic surroundings of the model herself. The equipment is simple. The level of trust between the model and the photographer is high. This minimal method allows Simond to get close to her subjects. Model and photographer move around each other which results into unexpected and dynamic perspectives. Simond tries to capture the intimate moments, undirected. The portrayed women are strong and soft at the same time. Foam will show black-and-white as well as colour works including a tryptic of Simond’s portraits in an intimate exhibition at Foam 3h, Foam’s space for young photographers.

Rayon Vert takes its title from a rare optical phenomenon of green flashes and rays that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise. A green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. When this phenomenon occurs is never predictable. To Simond this rare moment is a metaphor for photography and the magic that can happen between a photographer and her model. Rayon Vert is also the title of a film by the French director Eric Rohmer from 1986 that had an important influence on Simond’s working method and the image language.

After a period studying aesthetic and theory of cinema at the University of Lausanne she enrolled at ECAL School of Art (Switzerland) where she completed an M.A. in Photography, with honours. Her work has been nominated for Aperture/Paris Photo First Book, Wallpaper Graduate Directory and BJP Ones to Watch 2018. She is the winner of Swiss Design Awards 2018. Born in Geneva, she currently lives and works in Bienne, Switzerland.

On 14 September Foam organizes Beyond the Male Gaze. During this evening, photographers Senta Simond and Paul Mpagi Sepuya talk about their work. More information can be found at https://www.foam.org/home

This exhibition is made possible with support of the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund and the Van Bijlevelt Foundation.