L.Mikelle Standbridge - Photo Bodies

Exhibition from July 1st to September 22, 2019

The series : « Photo-Bodies: In between the edge of a stitched soul » investigates the relationship between bodies and photographs, creating a synergism between the subject photographed and the physical representation of it. The materiality of the photographic paper, such as the 'grammage' or paper density, the cotton base and pliability are all characteristics of fine art photographic paper and lend themselves to extending the concept of 'body' from the subject to the presentation.

The photographic print, in the form of these handmade photo-sculptures, is given its due dimension and presence, in the vocabulary of its own medium :100% cotton, pulpy, absorbent, flexible, scratchable, tearable, pierceable, stitchable. This series is an inquiry into the vocabulary of corporeity.

Jan - Mar 2021

About the Artist

Mikelle grew up in a mountain village in Southern California, USA, attained a degree in Art – with an emphasis on photography – from San Francisco State University. During this time she integrated 3 years in France to study French, darkroom printing, and art history. She was then awarded a scholarship to achieve a Masters from the University of Chicago. While teaching photography at Columbia College, Chicago she met her Italian husband-to-be and moved to Milan in 2000. The radically different teaching environments in the three institutions Mikelle attended is reflected in her artistry: original and boundry-breaking yet rooted in formal tradition and references. As she says “ S.F.S.U. was very alternative and experimental; the University of Paris was extremely formal and the University of Chicago was all about concepts.” After 20 years of darkroom printing and decades of working with different themes, always interrupted by a change of house/city/country/language, the “Photo-Bodies” series finally found its form - a perfect mix of experimentation, formal values and its own poetic concept.