Hélène Desplechin is a self-taught French visual artist based in Spain whose main focus is capturing fluidity through poetic imagery.
Her work, which she often refers to as “visual poems,” resides at the intersection of memory and light, silence and stories that cannot be uttered in words.
The series presented here floats in the comforting undulations of water. Driven by instinct and emotion, the photographs are more descriptive of the photographer herself than anything else. Desplechin views her art primarily as a large, cumulative portrait of her inner self, rather than a depiction of her environment.
Through a subtle and calming use of cool tones and muted, almost minimalist scenery, the photographer aims to create a state of constant movement and transience. Focusing on any of her pictures means, at any point in time, being in the middle of a continuous, ever-growing exploration. The artist notes that “in these images, bodies drift in and out of clarity, never fully fixed. The surface breaks them, softens them, sometimes almost erases them.”
“Water doesn’t just reflect—it shifts things,” she says. The distorted elements and presences are revealed organically, surprisingly hinting at a sense of belonging and the natural state of things. “A gesture becomes a blur, a presence turns into something uncertain. Everything feels suspended, like time is moving differently here.”
Desplechin turns her lens to water as a medium that has the power to alter our perception. “Water holds and distorts at the same time, turning what we see into something more fragile, more distant. […] Looking through it is like looking through a filter that slows everything down,” she describes.
Water is the cradle of all life and offers a unique point of view and possibility to challenge the senses. Humans spend the very beginning floating in amniotic fluid only to lose their ability to safely interact with water and need to learn how to swim. Rivers remind us of Heraclitus’ panta rhei; lakes and springs are the age-old dwellings of nymphs, naiads, and nixies; and seas and oceans constitute the majority of our planet, simultaneously separating and connecting the continents. Even we are mostly water. It is everything and everywhere. The artist perfectly conveys this omnipresence, filling frames to the brims and completely enveloping her subjects in it.
It is through water that Desplechin sees herself and others the clearest. But, unlike the unfortunate Narcissus, she doesn’t want to keep the reflection unstirred. The movement and pliability that water offers is what makes it so attractive. “Nothing is completely still, even when it seems to be,” says the artist. And it is also very much true when it comes to her photography.
Read our “Roots” issue in full
The new theme, born as usual from what the submitted works held in common, is “ROOTS.” Within its pages, we present the artworks, creativity, and inspiration of 60 visual artists and writers from 21 countries around the world. Their diverse voices come together around a shared exploration of the return to where one belongs, the invisible threads of tradition that shape identity, and the ongoing reconnection with nature, others, and oneself.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
