Ever after (article)

Forthcoming article to be published in a special issue of 'Visual Communication' on visual essays.

The project ´Ever After´ (2008) shown here extends my earlier interest in the mouth and the photographic portrayal of laughing and smiling, now investigating the invisible features of love and kissing. Both projects engage with our physical boundaries and how we encounter ourselves in others, including the visual misrecognitions that actively involve us in the promises and failures of photographic representations. Placing the lips as a central but absent presence, I wanted these images to address the kiss as a hidden entity, concealed from the viewer by the very anatomy of both lovers´ faces. By tracing the shadow between their embracing profiles, the metaphorical structure of kissing and being kissed is turned into a gesture of exchange, desire or demand. Thus, the images try to tell us stories of a potential intimacy between giving and taking, at the same time playing with the unattainable features of love itself.

For this issue, the photographs from ´Ever After´ are combined with texts from the work ´At a Glance´ (2008), the latter depicting unfulfilled connections of the loving gaze in a both poetic and pathetic way: encouraging, missed or disjointed exchanges of smiles. Coming together in a contrasting visual narrative, the two works suggest an imaginary dialogue between text and image on the pages of the journal.

Visual Communication is a quarterly, peer-reviewed academic journal publishing top research in visual studies. It welcomes contributions from scholars in anthropology, sociology, history and scientific research. Articles cover still and moving images; graphic design and typography; visual phenomena such as fashion, professional vision, posture and interaction; the built and landscaped environment; and the role of the visual in relation to language, music, sound and action.