Your name
Léna Maria
Place of birth
South of France
Place where you live now
Vercors mountain, France
3 words to describe you
Free, Observant, Cheerful
Why do you take pictures?
For me, photography is an exploration. I make images to venture out into the world. It's the medium that allows me to experience the absolute present and to be in an intense relationship with interiority. Photography also allows me to enter into relationships. It provokes an impulse towards oneself and towards others. I need that impetus. To meet characters, fictional or real, human or non-human, who have an intense relationship with their territory.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I draw my inspiration from what surrounds me: colors, elements, materials, sounds, landscapes, the people I love and those who arouse my curiosity. I find it fascinating, for example, to delve into the world of a painter, a fox or a volcanologist. I'm curious about their gestures and their research, and even if I don't understand much about it, I'm touched by the poetry that emerges.
Who are your influences?
I can be carried away by all kinds of sensitive experiences. So my influences are eclectic. I'm intensely stimulated by painting and cinema, especially the work of Jane Campion. I'm fascinated by the choreographic languages, Pina Baush and Carolyn Carlson, for example. What touches me intensely are the sincere things, the atypical, incandescent journeys of those who reject conformism. When I was a kid, when I cut out my parents' magazines, there were Sarah Moon's fashion photographs, but also those of Josef Koudelka or Nikos Economopoulos. For a long time, I was accompanied by Harry Gruyaert's kodachromes. I discovered the power of color with Dolores Marat.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
A little something in the heart. An intuition. It's still pretty mysterious. I need that mystery. I don't need to explain everything, it's fundamental for me.
What impact would you like your art to have?
Contributing to poetry. I firmly believe that poetry enables us to embrace multiplicity. And beyond that, to awaken our curiosity, restore joy and broaden our thinking.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Felix Valloton's paintings, especially The Wind - Stephen Gill's Night Procession - The ancient frescoes of Pompeii, especially Flora - Birdsong - NASA photographs - Wildlife and nature documentaries ...
Is there anything you want to add?
Thank you !

Fauve
Project statement

At the heart of this tale, ageless individuals wield the language of the elements. They follow rock tracks, track animals, answer a mysterious call. Fauve is an ode to transformation. To ancient rites. To forgotten games. Marking ruptures, passages, metamorphoses.

Fauve explores our ties to the outdoors and our relationship with intuition. It’s not a question of an impulse towards nature, but towards the living. Beings and things. The wind, the rock, the fox. Otherness. It’s a call to reaffect our senses. To reaffirm our listening. Reaching out for that something inside us, inscribed deep in our bodies, deep in our bellies. Something instinctual, animalistic. An open attention that induces other ways of being in the world and entering into relationships.

To succeed in making the experience of emancipation sensitive. That is the intention of this project. How can we break new ground? How do you become the architect of your own world? How do external elements unfold within us? And vice versa. Landscapes enter us, as we become one with them. The images in this series are like fragments, snippets of stories of women who refuse to shut themselves away. They act with the powerful intention and living strength of moving towards something that resembles them. The color photographs represent this quest, this inner essence. The black-and-white images evoke the idea of passage. These monochromes constitute a space of circulation reserved for symbols and rituals.

léna maria
@lena.m.aria