Erotic photography. #0621

Recollection, con­fes­sion, provo­ca­tion
The work of Dahmane has always revolved around the female body in all its splen­dour in an obses­sive way. The pres­ence of legs, hips and busts that partly or entirely reveal their nudity is simul­ta­ne­ously a rec­ol­lec­tion, con­fes­sion and provo­ca­tion.

It is a rec­ol­lec­tion because the child that each of us once was, is seized by the impos­sible yet defini­tively real memory of the belly that con­ceived him or her. It is a con­fes­sion because whether it is in its totality or in each of its parts that are all sup­pos­edly desir­able, this body is in spite of itself the implicit sub­ject of desire. It is a provo­ca­tion because ahead of any morals, there is a decency that is empha­sised rather than breached by nudity. His images incite us to acknowl­edge the exis­tence of this indis­cernible decency.

Early begin­nings
Dahmane was born in Paris in 1959. Both of his par­ents were painters. He was exposed to the world’s com­plexity and beauty at a very young age. As a teenager, he was deter­mined to pursue an artistic career, always turning towards pho­tog­raphy.
When he was twenty years old, fol­lowing a short expe­ri­ence in the world of fashion, he pro­gres­sively became the great por­traitist he is today. This is the dual world in which he has evolved since. An explo­ration of his œuvre is pre­sented here.

Environment, nude, face
Dahmane is an urban pho­tog­ra­pher. He explores all the angles of cities and focuses on the geo­metric shapes of the mega­lopolis, like the places that Paris con­ceals or pro­tects, such as opu­lent apart­ments, night­clubs, or closed places to which he is given access.

Without its inhab­i­tants, these cities are nothing and rep­re­senting the world as it is would be point­less. He there­fore intro­duces the female body, which for him appears to be the only way to enchant this world once again. According to him, the female body bears a vast poetic dimen­sion that allows dreams to go beyond the frame, be it mental, pic­to­rial or pho­to­graphic. The aim is not to get out of the frame but on the con­trary to include a pres­ence that is dis­turbing because provoca­tive, obses­sive because fem­i­nine, daz­zling because beau­tiful.

There is always a nude body within the frame as that nude is always a person. The out­lines of the flesh, the poten­tial for expres­sion and the power of evoking faces cap­ti­vate him. The women he pho­tographs are not models. He sug­gests to them to pose because he grasps their indi­vidual per­son­ality alongside their beauty.

Focusing solely on the nudity in his pho­tographs would be neglecting the essence of each of his pho­tographs, that of the artic­u­la­tion between the gaze and the stature, the decor and the body, the world and the per­son­ality. Each image bears wit­ness to a story, that of the body’s set­ting in a given place, of which the mul­tiple emo­tions can only be grasped by the expres­sion of the face.