Josephine Cardin – Fine Art Photography

New York based visual artist Josephine Cardin works primarily in self-portraiture to capture human emotion in all its complex aspects, approaching themes of solitude and isolation, exploring the deepest fears, self-doubt, loss and melancholy, addictions and insecurities, the darkness that we impose and surround ourselves with by embracing the false and constructed ideals of society.

When in front of Josephine Cardin’s outstanding fine art photography, one may first experience the beauty and powerful expressiveness of the harmonious gestures and gentle movements of the subject (often Josephine, who is also a former dancer), yet at a second glance this almost dreamlike state reveals its essential meaning, related to the imprisonment of the self, as if our minds deny who we truly are and restrict ourselves from being free.

The artist also focuses on the idea of growth and transformation and, as we learn from her recent interviews, she has always been fascinated with human aspirations and obsessions for “mediocre versions of unrealistic images” and the efforts to fit within a conventional frame and mindset, built on youth, symmetry and simulated perfection. Distancing herself from this narrow perception of beauty, she experiments with her own body, inserting a piece of herself inside each new work, creating visually compelling stories of the self.

Part of ‘Between Lock and Key’, 2015. “A series exploring the dichotomy of how we have the ability to both mentally imprison ourselves, while simultaneously holding the key to unlocking our freedom.”

Part of the series ‘From The Outside’, 2015

Part of the series ‘Of Desolate Amber’, 2015

Part of the series ‘Captured Self’, 2015

Part of the series ‘Breaking Over Me’, 2015

Part of the series ‘Contrasted Harmony’, 2015. “This series explores the concept of Yin Yang and how its duality, balanced as two haves create an invisible whole. Though apparently opposite or contrary, these forces are actually complementary, interacting to form a system where the whole is greater than each part.”

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View more on her website, on Behance, Facebook and Instagram.