Aëla Labbé’s photographies have a magical quality. They pull the viewer into their obscure spell and open up a wide space for imagination to unfold. The exclusively analogue processed photographs show young women and children by the sea, in the forest, in nostalgic rooms. The protagonists seem to be under a spell. They dream, a convergence is happening. In the dream state the human being approaches its inner self, it orbits the unconscious and faces its inner fears and wishes. Aëla Labbé’s photographs touch the side which lives in us, uncoupled from the conscious. The repeated avertedness in her figures underlines this evasive nature of the unconscious. Like icons of dreams, human beings move outside time through her photographs. Yet nostalgia is also inherent in her pictures; a mythical glimpse of the past flows through her sceneries. This attribute opens a door to another view. In Aëla Labbé’s timeless universe the world beyond seems no unapproachable place: some of her shots seem ghostly, the bodies and glances eerie and occult.
Still, the essence of Aëla Labbé’s photographs eludes any attempt to be formed into words. It’s their peculiar ethereal aura which makes these images so unique and indescribable.
Nadine Zoller for SEEANCE MAGAZINE
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