Created over a sustained period in Florence and finalised in England, Anima is a series that questions a selfie-saturated world whilst remaining light-hearted with the medium of traditional photobooth pictures.
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Anima (n): A current of air, wind breeze; the vital principle, life, soul.
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Engagement is a significant factor in the formation of the series, Anima. Firstly, there is Elle’s desire to engage with the people of Florence, a city initially full of strangers to the English born Artist. The city’s embroilment in art and portraiture enthused Elle, who worked as a model for various painters, sculptors and visual artists, deepening an interest in understanding exactly what a portrait is - and where the agency lies in portraiture: is it with the sitter or the maker?
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As a portrait photographer, Elle began casting from the Florentine streets, instigating conversations that varied between a nod & smile to twenty minute exchanges. Instead of shooting on a handheld camera, Elle chose to be removed from the immediate set-up of the portrait, making use of the readily accessible photobooth/fotoautomatica as an apt medium. The participants sat in the photobooth, without external gaze, faced with a need to engage with their 'self' in order to express their anima.
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An interesting point, Elle notes, is how it was impossible to document the number of people who simply didn’t want to be seen; there were people who were happy to stay for a conversation, but not everyone was content to document their image. There were also those who were willing to join in, providing they shared the photobooth with a friend. These group shots are presented in the Anima publication as a hand-finished triple page spread. The ways in which couples & groups respond in the booth is curious in comparison with how the individuals might respond on their own. Elle queries whether this self-expression of anima is amplified more as individual portraits, or when interacting with another person?
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Wanting to emphasise the significance of engagement, Elle has hand-finished each publication. With inserted photobooth strips, posters, crayon marks, doodles, old Italian papers and fold-out spreads; the experience of turning the pages of Anima is very tactile. These hand-finished touches mean no two books are the same; they are each entirely individual. This is not accidental. Elle emphasises how each of us is entirely individual, in any given moment: we each contain our own anima, which shifts indefinitely.
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The book Anima is designed and hand-finished by Ellen Kydd; and published by 0.08 Imprints, an independent publishing house based in Salford, England.
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