Your name
Maria Denise Dessimoz
Place of birth
Athens, Greece
Place where you live now
Berlin, Germany
3 words to describe you
Intense, clumsy and passionate.
Why do you take pictures?
I take or make pictures to better perceive my inner and outer reality. In many ways, photography is a healing tool for understanding and acceptance.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Essentially from life circumstances, human relationships, macabre and weird genre movies, mother nature, and esoteric books.
Who are your influences?
P. Guilmoth, Andrei Tarkovsky, Antoine D`Agata, Minor White, Francesca Woodman, Yorgos Yatromanolakis, Elena Helfrecht
What determines the subject matter you choose?
That depends on the context and the type of photography. If it is staged, then it’s determined by a preconceived idea. If it’s a snapshot, it comes from an aesthetic interest and the unconscious. In any case, all are influenced by the emotional state, and through this process, there is an attempt of self-awareness, inner truth and clarity.
What impact would you like your art to have?
Self-compassion and befriending one's shadows and darker moments in life.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Arnold Böcklin’s painting: Isle of the dead ( The third version,1883)
Is there anything you want to add?
nope :)

The Inevitable Anguish of Desire
Project statement

The Inevitable Anguish of Desire started as a healing process to overcome the feeling of pain that had been affecting the artist’s mental health. In facing these intense thoughts daily, she creates a visual diary with the use of the camera, capturing images that correspond to the momentary emotion. In this way, the artist faces her current situation, accepts it and transforms it. Some of the creations are instant snapshots and others are preconceived staged ideas born from the subconscious and the early stage of REM sleep.

This project aims to bring visibility to the pain from unwanted emotions that derive from unfulfilled desires. It’s a process of accepting the void and befriending the darkness. An attempt to be honest with her inner reality and see it for what it is. She never expected that someone would mirror her wounds and all the insecurities of not being good enough. It took her time to realize that this external reality was just a reflection of her inner world. This warm feeling of belonging that she was craving so badly was not out there but somewhere buried inside her. It takes time but it gets better. Transforming the pain into an image was a process of self-acceptance. As within so without.

@maria_denise_dessimoz