Jeudi 16 Avril 2015 10:37:38 par Juliette Sellin dans Expositions

A deep tenderness pervades Cattleya Jaruthavee’s new photographic series, ‘Paused Dream’. This is an indescribable portrait of youth: to be so young and already overhung with the sour smell of disappointed hopes ; a sprightly old dance record, full of impossible yearning, forever stuck on a melancholy groove.

Close to the Thai-Lao border, Laotian ‘hostesses’ wait patiently for clients outside their karaoke bars. Business is slow in the rainy season; competition is fierce among the many bars in that small area. “There is a clear spectre of hope,” says Jaruthavee, “nursed with infinite patience by the act of continuous waiting.”

The photographer’s intimate empathy for her subject is vibrant and palpable; she moves us to tears even as her work’s degree of accomplishment and honesty uplift the girls as sentient souls. The series’ saturated eye-candy colours of the girls’ neon-lit surroundings and their ‘play’ clothes remind us of dollhouses.

© Cattleya Jaruthavee



© Cattleya Jaruthavee