UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
BOOZE COOPERATIVA
FEBRUARY 2019
in cooperation with “Shedia” street paper
Curated by: Alex Papaioannou
Renee became familiar with diving and the seabed at an early stage. The depths of the ocean; a place foreign to most and frightening at times to the rest. The idea of what lies beneath the surface of our plain sight is often unsettling.
Her photos are taken from another level and space as depth appears limitless. Thus, subjects displayed in her portraits effervesce in their attempt to breath. When admiring each piece, unwittingly, you may find yourself holding your own breath as if you want to feel what people are experiencing in front of her lens.
“The feeling of finding yourself beneath the water’s surface has the power to transform you, it exposes you to someone unassociated with your identity, a primitive version of yourself”. This statement is often used by the photographer to describe the feeling of mankind as an entity. Forgotten memories are discovered every time we resurface and return to our natural state. She believes that this is caused by having conquered the unconscious fear of depth.
She recognizes that size is no factor within the borderless depths of what lies beneath the surface. So much of what we cannot comprehend takes place beneath it. Besides, each one of us has or will find ourselves seeking for answers, alone, inside our own seabed. Inside the depths of our own, boundless silence.
_Alex Papaioannou