These photographic compositions are montages of images taken in Paris and Beirut at different times of year. This project is the result of creative research on the theme of time and space. Time as the subject that was, is and will be. Time unfolding in a city, absent and spectral, devoid of content. There is nothing to own, no body, no action and no framework of history.

We are looking at a clear connection. We must take time to examine these images. Only then can we embrace all of the details and stories contained in them. Each image is the result of symbiosis, a clear connection between different time and space. Winter melts into summer, Paris into Beirut, a rolling steel shutter in a Paris suburb.

Time is at play in several ways. First of all, I took the original image as part of a series of photos shot at intervals ranging from seconds to months. This treatment of time gave rise to another. The idea was not to fill empty space to the point of saturation with characters and codes, but to counteract switching between visual and mental ideas by eliminating every trace of our entertainment-driven society.

Stripped of media and advertising, these scenes permit infinite contemplation. It is a godless world: when it was stripped of the word, He abandoned it. Perhaps these photographs represent the blind eye that makes inner vision possible again.

Inside these sanctuaries with their strange, heavy atmospheres, not a single human is visible and yet a human presence seems to fill the space. It’s like a mirror reflecting something that isn’t there yet influences the unfolding of future time. It’s like a consequence unfolding.

Slow text & photos by James Bort

Scarlett Hooft drags us into her photographic story; her work resides into the paradox between the slowness of the preparation and the instantaneity of the shooting.

Scarlett Hooft Graafland spent four months in the icy regions of northern Canada to create this series of photos filled with poetry and a sense of the unexpected; a mix of performance and photography set in dreamlike settings of endless stretches of snow.

Scarlett Hooft Graafland - Journey
© Scarlett Hooft Graafland courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary

These photos plunge us into a surreal and intriguing atmosphere, out of time. Humour is very present both as an element of surprise and in the composition of the photos, as if to lead us to question the messages: is this strange place in need of preservation? Is this culture and its folklore to be discovered? Is it a hidden treasure?

Scarlett Hooft Graafland - Green
© Scarlett Hooft Graafland courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary

Many questions come to mind in viewing these images as they are more than just an invitation to escape, they address concerns such as family, cultural integrity, and the environment.

Born in 1973 in the Netherlands, Hooft Graafland is based in both Amsterdam and New York. Her work to date has included sculpture, installations, photography and performance. She has studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem and Parsons School of Design, New York. She has had solo exhibitions all over Europe and has been part of group shows at the Metropolitan Museum, New York and Musée D’Orsay, Paris, amongst others.

‘You Winter, Let’s Get Divorced’ by Scarlett Hooft Graafland, at the Michael Hoppen Gallery from February 5 - March 29, 2009. All images © Scarlett Hooft Graafland, courtesy Michael Hoppen Contemporary

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