Through self-portraiture, Roxy Hervé discovers a new way to capture intimacy
Photography Roxy Hervé
After years spent capturing lovers’ most intimate moments, the French photographer turns the lens on herself
When the French government announced lockdown restrictions in March, photographer Roxy Hervé fled her shoebox apartment in Paris and moved to Brittany. “I knew restrictions would be harder to keep in Paris,” she says. “I usually escape to the countryside when I can anyways, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to breathe in some fresh air and have a good creative flow without going mad in a tiny, tiny flat.”
Relationships have long been at the heart of Hervé’s practice. For her ongoing “Lovers” series, she immerses herself in strangers’ homes and photographs couples during some of their most intimate moments. But living in isolation has forced her to rethink her approach. “The first big question I had to ask myself was, ‘How will I be able create something intimate when there is no one around and my photography work involves building a relationship and being close to people?’” she says.
“Unknown Lovers Numero Trois” (2020) by Roxy Hervé
It’s with this in mind that Hervé decided to venture into self-portraiture. In her new series “COVID 19 2020,” she uses her body to explore her new surroundings. In the black-and-white photos, we find her playing with the limitations of a small, self-contained space and creating unnatural new shapes with her body in an effort to “design an abstract human being that seems to be stuck in a timeless space.”
“I obviously found it very challenging at the beginning to have the camera turned on me for the first time and at the same time being behind it,” she says. “Trying to paint an image with your own body rather than someone else’s relies on a lot more patience than usual.”
As her own subject and director, she had to start to shoot differently. Most importantly, “I pick what kind of forms I felt comfortable and confident enough to use to create an image that I perceived to be a good one, which has taught me how to accept and feel more confident in my body.”
After two weeks alone, Hervé is now living with family members. And while she found her experiments in isolation intriguing, she’s eager for lockdown to end so that she can resume her practice as usual. “I feel like working with other human beings and, most importantly, being behind the camera helps me perceive the intimate or hidden moments that I may not see if I am in front.”