Bettina von Zwehl

by Darian Leader, Bettina Von Zwehl

Bettina von Zwehl's portraits in series impose exacting conditions on her subjects. She photographs them as they wake from deep sleep, as they hold their breath, as they recover from physical exertion, drenched in rain or listening intently to music in a darkened room. She orchestrates a climate in which they must relinquish control of the way they are represented. The resulting portraits reveal not the conscious projection of an identity but a space between the subject's private and thoughtful world and his or her public appearance. With their pared-down backgrounds and balanced compositions, von Zwehl's portraits have the texture and poise of Renaissance paintings. Their stillness arrests the viewer and demands the kind of absorption they depict. The eye is directed to the slightest blemishes, wrinkles, stray hairs, raised color in the cheeks, a striking variety of profiles. Surveyed in this comprehensive monograph, Bettina von Zwehl's work forms a delicate and exquisitely detailed catalogue of human physiognomy.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2006

About the author

Darian Leader is a British psychoanalyst and author. He is a founding member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR).

Darian Leader is President of the College of Psychoanalysts, a Trustee of the Freud Museum, and Honorary Visiting Professor in Psychoanalysis at Roehampton University.

From Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darian_L...