Bodies Unaligned

There is a broken line going down my palm that runs along all the way to the tips of my fingers and the spaces in-between. It’s like the pathways running through maps of mountainous regions. It’s the seam that holds me together. First, I created the bond and then I gave it meaning. The gesture wasn’t planned at all. 

When working with the Lowen method, the body is subject to constant observation. The key is not in what I say but in what I do with my body. My movements and the emotions they contain. 

I trust my body. It doesn’t allow itself to be fooled. 

I became aware, recently, of the parallel between me as a photographer – observing the body that is my subject – and me as a subject of therapy – where I am, myself, the subject of observation and where the emotions coded in the movements of my body are analyzed.  

I put a casting call up on Instagram. I set just two conditions. First, I wanted brutal honesty. Second, I didn’t want any professional models because this would take away from the realness. As I shot the images, I looked for the moments when the body hovers between gestures, out of position, out of order. The body as it moves from one pose just before it shifts into the next. It’s in these moments that the body reveals its beauty, with all its vulnerability.  

The photograph of my father’s hand is the last one I took of him. I have no idea if it’s a good picture or not, but that isn’t the point.

The exhibition presents 37 photographs taken between 2016-2020, with the main pillar of the exhibition focussed on photographs taken by the artist over the first few months of 2020. Among the 60 individuals who answered Kasia Bielska’s casting call on Instagram, she chose ten and invited them to take part in an honest and intimate photo session.