Marjolein Martinot

The face is a narrative space. A book full of stories seeking to be read carefully. The novel of a lifetime. We always hold the strange conviction that the individual hides behind the mask of the face.

 

Oscar Wilde once said that after the age of forty, everyone is responsible for their own face. The geography of the face is an infinite landscape that both conceals and reveals our soul.

Perhaps that is why we enjoy so much looking at portraits of our family members, our friends, and our loved ones.

However, we are also fascinated by looking at portraits of unknown and anonymous people. Looking directly into a face, contemplating the image of a face is to maintain a bond, an intimate and profound communion.

 

The gaze is never innocent. That is why in large cities people avoid looking each other in the eye. A direct and steady gaze is a deliberate act of aggression.

 

Photographer Marjolein Martinot in her work Riverland walks along the water’s edges and looks straight into people’s faces and eyes. She travels with her camera along the rivers and waterways of Southern France. A stream that meanders like an ancient path among the trees. A liminal space full of mist and dream.

The author presents a series of photographs of classic craftsmanship and meticulous, beautiful black and white shot on film, showing us various scenes, frontal portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.

In her images by the river, under the soft morning light and the golden tones of dusk, time stands suspended in an endless summer. An oniric and magical world where children play happily, and teenagers, families, and couples watch life pass by without regret. With complete acceptance.

 

Riverland is a haven at the heart of the fairy forest, a place to hide from death and live forever. Our lives, our faces are as brief as photographs, but it is when someone looks at us that we become eternal.