Patrícia Reis

The title O Banho de Patrícia refers to the myth of Diana and Actaeon, and departs from representations of the mythological narratives, resumed during the Ancient Regime by painters such as François Boucher or Antoine-Jean Gros. In the photograph, the viewer progresses in space and arrives to the place where someone is taking a bath. Although we are entering someone’s intimacy, and although our gaze is indiscreet, almost voyeuristic, she who is being observed is aware of it. The character that is being watched confronts the viewer. This shift in the position of the gaze, from the control or the power between the observed (the woman) and the observer (the man), signals the renovation of the classical representation in a present context, and also the use of the photographic support, the casual untidiness of the space, and of the summoning of the several planes that precede the centrality of the image. In close relation with reality, distant from the metaphorical representations of mythological scenes, is another image by Jacques-Louis David: La Mort de Marat. The painter, a friend of the revolutionary leader, was with him at the time of his death, and painted the picture on an impulse, including only the elements that were absolutely necessary to portray the contemporary situation. The proximity that the viewer establishes with this character places him in a game of gazes not dissimilar to the mise en abyme triggered in the photograph of Patrícia Reis: the point of view of the one who entered a private space is replaced by our own gaze.