Marguerite Bornhauser

The phenomenon of colour is far from being explained with certainty. Is it a purely physical sensation pertaining to objects or is it merely a subjective psychological reaction? Is it found in external reality or in the interior of our brain?

It took a long time for the use of colour in photography to become accepted by the art world. It was considered that black and white was more suitable for a visual representation of the real world and that the use of colour only added deception and frivolity.  This disdain for colour in the history of photography did not change until the appearance of work by such practitioners as William Eggleston and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Marguerite Bornhauser's work goes much further and colour is both the content and form of her style, becoming a way of perceiving and representing the world.

Her project ‘When Black is Burned’ comprises a series of poetic images of intoxicating beauty that approach the realm of the abstract. Enlarged fragments, outlines of dark black shadows, textures, reflections, isolated plant forms and decontextualised fragments.  A dreamlike world which blues the difference between reality and fiction.

To achieve this colour palette, Bornhauser uses classic Ektar 100 film to obtain dense, saturated colour. Her mastery of colour and her playful use of the contrast between shadow and light underlie the singularity of this visual language full of intense, organic chromaticism. The material from which her dreams are made.