Belgium Photography

CHARLOTTE MARIEN "Obscurances 4" (2018). Edition: 30+2 AP. Signed and numbered. Certificate of Authenticity included. Hahnemühle Rag 308 g. Available in 2 sizes.

"Obscurances" revolves around a fictional character seemingly submerged in an alternative reality," Mariën exlains. "The title is a fusion of two words: obscure and occurrences. 'Obscure,' apart from its meaning of darkness and enigma, pays homage to the camera obscura, the origin of photography itself. To her, this is a nod to the essence of photography – a dark room where present light rays converge to create an image. 'Occurrences,' on the other hand, allude to the remarkable events experienced by the fictitious character. This series embodies experiments with unconventional light sources, layering, reflections, and projections."

Charlotte Mariën is a photographer based in Leuven, Belgium. After graduating in communication sciences, she immersed herself in photography at LUCA School of Arts, Narafi, Vorst. She presented her graduation series “A fashion dream” at the LUCA Showcase 2018. She continued her photography studies at Sint-Lukas, Brussels and was selected as a resident at the reopened historical BAC Atelier in Leuven. Her work has been showcased in various exhibitions.

Challenging reality is a central theme in her work. She uses photography as a medium to turn her vivid imagination into a sharable story. Charlotte’s work is often situated in nightly scenes, which pushes beyond the boundaries of reality to create an alienating universe. She aims to reevaluate imagination and receptiveness to the other, the strange. She considers this attitude to be invaluable in life, as it is necessary to challenge entrenched conceptions.

In 2023, Mariën's body of work has been compiled into a book entitled Obscurances. This collection revolves around a fictitious character trapped in a dream – an entity suspended in the void of Marien's imagination. In these images, a spectral silhouette appears amidst a backdrop of hands, mysterious lights, reflections, and more. It is a playground where reality is defied to represent elements that, by conventional standards, should not exist.

In 2022, Mariën exhibited at Rotterdam Photo in the Netherlands. In 2021, she was open call finalist at Helsinki Photo Festival, Finland and also was exhibited at the International Foto Biennale Ostend, PhotoTWENS and Knokke-Heist in Belgium. In 2020, she won and exhibited at PEP, New Talents 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

https://www.charlottemarien.com/

The work can be explored in our Virtual Art Gallery: https://visit.virtualartgallery.com/helphoto-selected-darlings