“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free”. Jacques Yves Cousteau
For underwater photography lovers, this sense of freedom is not created autonomously or automatically, but is conquered over time by managing the successive challenges that arise underwater.
Renee’s photography career spans over 20 years, but currently her photographic steps have led her to the aquatic environment that is familiar and beloved. She conveys a feeling of absolute peace, of being part of the uniquely undisturbed world of the seabed. Through her eyes, we are guided below the surface of the lake and urged to get to know a different world, through ethereal figures that turn into water creatures, as the world outside the liquid element temporarily ceases to exist.
The audience is invited to experience the aquatic world created by Renee, becoming conduits of the magical feeling brought by the absence of gravity and absolute freedom of movement; symbolized by the image of the undulating, silent and frighteningly dark water, and obeying no rules except for the spontaneity of emotions and the need of every person to express their innate creativity.
These austere photographs, excerpts from a marine universe, invite the audience to have a poetic reading and attitude. Even if the viewer has not lived the experience of the photographer or the person being photographed in these peculiar environments, they will be able to feel what Gaston Bachelard argues in Water and Dreams: “Possibly more than any other element, water is the complete poetic reality through which we enjoy, among other things, an intimate taste of our destiny “.
Nina Kassianou