Matilde Søes Rasmussen’s Pictures Study the Efficiency of Modelling

The Danish-Swedish artist Matilde Søes Rasmussen has been photographed quite a bit. That is partly because it’s a requirement of her job – she has labored as a mannequin for over a decade – and partly as a result of she has employed herself as a recurring topic in her personal work, which explores how the illustration and notion of self may be managed and understood by means of pictures. In current tasks Rasmussen has reworked a private archive of movies recorded at castings (Matilde S, 2022) and recreated present trend pictures of herself, this time substituting luxurious clothes with physique paint and located clothes (Copy, 2022), additional including to her image-led investigations.

In 2021, Rasmussen launched her debut e-book Unprofessional to crucial acclaim, which was shortlisted for the Rencontres d’Arles Photograph Textual content Award that 12 months. Now, the work – which mixes diaristic pictures, self-portraiture and textual content documenting her profession as a mannequin – has just lately gone on present as an exhibition on the Centrum För Fotografi in Stockholm. Rasmussen’s seemingly ever-changing character is seen within the multitude of portraits, alongside snapshots of mannequin colleagues and the on a regular basis situations they discover themselves in.  “I’m into determining the personas we current ourselves as to the world, the grand play all of us put as much as survive,” she explains. 

Under, we spoke with Matilde to find the position that darkish humour has within the work, and the way her notion of herself has modified by means of modelling and pictures.

Adam Murray: Unprofessional was first printed as a photobook in 2021. What new alternatives does the exhibition at Centrum för Fotografi offer you for presenting this work?

Matilde Søes Rasmussen: A room with white partitions and crispy gentle! The place the e-book is sort of a messy affair in each image and textual content, the room will really feel quite a bit calmer. I’ve even been afraid that it’s too calm – is it conservative? However I believe it’s additionally essential to provide the work the area it deserves, and CFF is a gorgeous area that concurrently runs as an organisation for photographers. For me personally, it’s a probability to have fun this work and to shut a chapter. I’ve been modelling for 15 years this February, and it feels fairly full circle to open my first institutional solo exhibition with precisely this physique of labor that focuses a lot on my years of modelling.

“I’ve learnt how you can be knowledgeable, to play a task, however I nonetheless really feel like an outsider in modelling and trend” – Matilde Søes Rasmussen

AM: In a earlier interview, you mentioned you “had been relieved when a buddy texted me saying she thought (the e-book) was hilarious”. Are you able to develop on the position that humour performs in your work?

MSR: It means every little thing in my work! For me, it’s simply the one approach I understand how to assault. I’m drawn to different work that makes use of humour as properly, work that doesn’t shrink back from being entertaining. We’re right here to provide a present aren’t we! My subsequent publication is about efficiency as a result of I just lately began working backstage at a theatre, but additionally the completely different sorts of efficiency that we encounter in our day by day lives however by no means contemplate. I’m into determining the personas we current ourselves as to the world, the grand play all of us put as much as survive. And there’s quite a lot of very darkish humour hidden there! 

AM: In addition to working as a mannequin for over a decade, you may have been lively with pictures for the same interval. How has your understanding of what you need to do with pictures developed throughout this time? 

MSR: Like all photographers, I like to hate on pictures, after which days later I’ll get this robust sense of desirous to {photograph} one thing I see, or I take into consideration a sequence I need to do of a buddy. After which I’ve to confess to myself, I actually just like the medium. However I additionally write and I make movies and people are my three instruments and they’re all mandatory. I’m not glad with both, so I would like all of them. Phrases have the power of having the ability to punctuate {a photograph}, to kill the poetry. Movie has the power to erase the decisive second, and I make use of these strategies quite a bit. The melancholy and seriousness of pictures scares me.

AM: How has modelling modified your notion of your self?

MSR: It has formed me as a result of it has allowed me into locations the place I in any other case didn’t belong, and nonetheless really feel like I don’t belong after 15 years. I’ve learnt how you can be knowledgeable, to play a task, however I nonetheless really feel like an outsider in modelling and trend.

AM: How has pictures modified your notion of your self? 

MSR: Fairly actually I’ve a really well-documented development of what my face and physique appear like at completely different ages. For now it’s enjoyable, however I’m scared it is going to come again to hang-out me sooner or later!

AM: Analyzing the manufacturing of trend photos is a core concern of Unprofessional in addition to your different current tasks Copy and Matilde S. What are your ideas on modern trend photos?

MSR: Photographing somebody requires a lot consideration! The literal absence of inhaling that second once you shoot the great shot, I believe quite a lot of photographers can relate to that. I really feel tremendous robust with the digital camera. And I believe that’s additionally slightly scary. What’s that about? Perhaps it’s about energy and management, and I believe quite a lot of photographers may be capable to relate to that too. A minimum of I hold returning to that, and hold questioning the position and the notice of the photographer, particularly in relation to a mannequin – not a trend mannequin, simply anybody who’s in entrance of a digital camera.

And that questioning of hierarchy is one thing that perhaps lacks within the manufacturing of up to date trend photos – in reality I believe it could be intrinsic to trend picture making, to not take into consideration these hierarchies of energy in trend – as a result of if you concentrate on that, you may’t promote issues. And basically that’s what we need to do. But it surely’s so advanced, the lightness of trend imagery is so interesting and charming and I believe it’s very doable to embrace a few of that stupidity with heat, open arms and a crying coronary heart on the similar time!

Unprofessional by Matilde Søes Rasmussen is on present on the Centrum För Fotografi in Stockholm till 12 February 2023.