â??US ALONEâ??
2011
This series of photographs depicting couples at home, examines moments of tension and bordeom between males and females who cohabit.
These photographs are a departure from the traditional image of the happy, loving couple within vernacular photography and instead address the hidden, melancholy moments of coexistence. I wanted to explore the disparity between each partner striving for personal freedom and identity, alongside the need to act as part of a whole in creating a shared and unified reality. I photographed real couples within their own homes performing in a collaborative attempt to render visible the twofold existence of a partner, whilst considering the habituated roles and power relations between the genders.
Ordinary domestic moments are dramatized by the use of theatrical lighting and carefully directed poses to instill a mood of expectant anxiety. Elements of the environment and the objects within it are included or excluded to suggest their role in affecting intimacy and the emotions, behaviour and personality of each character within the space.
Laura Stevens (b.1977, UK) received a Masterâ??s degree in photography from the University of Brighton, England, in 2007. Her work has recently received an Honorable Mention in the Lens Culture Exposure Awards and a Julia Margaret Cameron Award. This last year she exhibited in the Foto8 Summer Show, the Peaches and Cream exhibition in London, and The Centre of Fine Art Photography in Colorado. Recent projects of conceptually led portraiture and constructed narratives base their subject matter on personal relationships, intimacy and the domestic space. Stevens currently lives and works in Paris.
