Rosa Canina

In this second book published by Éditions FP&CF, the Swiss photographer Mathilda Olmi reconciles militant commitment and plastic work. A committed feminist, involved for several years in social struggles, the photographer has asked people around her to confide in their relationship to their own body. Far beyond the dominant clichés conveyed by the specialized press or cosmetics brands, the models, exclusively female, pose naked, unvarnished, with their scars, their experience and show a more universal approach to female bodies.
Behind the closed doors of a living room, the models reveal what they wish to show, to exhibit. Natural light reveals the details and particularities of each. Sometimes with modesty, sometimes more assumed, the bodies are revealed, and implicitly the individuals who inhabit them. Far from posing with artificial sensuality, Mathilda Olmi has been able to capture the very essence of each person through postures, gestures, almost an improvised dance in front of the lens.

The still lifes punctuate this portfolio and are both pauses and markers of everyday life, evoking the relationship between the exploitation of nature by men and the oppression suffered by women.
Wild plant appreciated by witches, thorny and tenacious, the dog rose or dog rose « Rosa Canina », here bears a militant echo to the artistic purpose of the photographer.
On nearly 100 pages, this book offers a selected collection of intimate portraits mixed with still lifes of everyday life, and invites both contemplation and questioning on the foundations of our relationship to our own body.