Delphine Burtin’s Illusory New Series, Encouble

Playing with the ambiguity of perception, Swiss photographer Delphine Burtin’s new series, ‘Encouble’, questions the notions of illusion and disappearance through still life compositions.

This is the first solo show for the photographer, whose rearrangement of everyday objects sees her manipulate geometric shapes, shadows and tonal colors, undermining the audience’s perception of reality in the process. You see, that is precisely the point: Burtin enjoys stumbling on said materials, disrupting and reconstructing their nature, and then capturing on film the result of this practice, an ode to the meaning of the series title itself. ‘Encouble’, a French noun, is something that embarrasses, is unwelcome, or that which interferes.

“My camera becomes a tool for visual experimentation”, she says. “I’m trying to distance myself from reality in order to question it. I wonder about what lies within an image, always keeping in mind the question of how to interpret what our senses reveal”. It’s clear from the images that Burtin seeks to engage with both what is shown and hidden; a metaphor for life’s big mysteries. Of this intention, she explains: “I hold up a distorting mirror that reflects parts of ourselves that do exist but that are far from being the whole truth. All this becomes an invitation to engage in a metaphorical exploration of our relationship with the world and with each other”.