Charlotte Fraigneau is a visual artist using both analogue and digital photography as a lens through which we can open a conversation about mental health and global warming. She is interested in exploring our mental, physical and emotional responses to overwhelming stimuli as well as the often negative yet sometimes beautiful impact of humans on the planet.
Growing up in the Caribbean, South America and France, Fraigneau developed a strong affinity for the natural world and the dramatic changes it’s undergoing.
Although she does enjoy working on the creation of visual projects tackling issues around mental health and global warming, Fraigneau also explores a range of other artistic mediums and enjoys learning from other artists. She likes to work with sketchbooks and enjoy the research part of a project as much as the making part of it.
In one of her most recent projects, titled Entropic Breakfast, she created and photographed an installation that included mould and Physarum Polycephalum (Slime Mould). Currently based in Cambridge, UK, she graduated in Photography from Cambridge School of Art and was a Burberry Design Scholar at the Royal College of Art in London.
Can you tell us about your journey into art and why you decided to focus on photography?
My Dad was an artist so I grew up surrounded by art. From a young age, I was given disposable cameras to take with us on family trips. Years later, for the equivalent of my A-levels in France, I studied visual arts and was given access to a darkroom which had very quickly become a little refuge. I have always enjoyed the visual world of photography but I think part of me needed to capture places, emotions and moments of my life to hold on to them a little longer as my family was moving from one place to another so I never had the opportunity to settle somewhere as a child. I like journaling and I think photography for me is the visual part of it. After two years in England, I decided to enrol for a Photography BA in Cambridge and since then my love and curiosity for photography only grew.
What or who inspires your work?
This is going to sound cliche but life, in general, inspires me. Whether it is a walk-in nature or a day drowning in anxiety I like to document the emotions and thoughts of most days. I often get my ideas from looking at other photographs, reading books, watching movies, visiting art galleries (especially the V&A-my all-time favourite) and walking through life with my ears and eyes open.
Who are your favourite artists?
I admire and feel inspired by a lot of artists, however, I particularly look up to Nick Brandt, Tim Walker and Brooke Shaden’s work. I believe these artists opened the door for me to think about representing social issues, emotions and ideas into digitally/physically constructed images. It was due to Brooke Shaden’s photographs more specifically that I first tried my hand at digital manipulation in my series Deluge.
Is it important for you to tackle social issues in your work?
Yes definitely, especially when it comes to mental health issues and working on series of images. When I work on a project I would like to think it opens to a discussion and as naive as it sounds I’m quietly hopeful that a better world can come out of it.
Your current project Entropic Breakfast explores the notion of decay can tell us about this, your inspiration and process?
I grew up with a lot of respect for the environment and observed the changes mostly negative that it’s undergoing. These past few years have brought up a lot of worries in regards to the impact of humans on our planet and for this reason, I decided to make it the main focus for my MA final project. Entropic Breakfast is a series of images celebrating the artful and awful nature of a space taken over and out of human control. Looking at mould, like looking at humans, is like looking at something both celestial and microcosmic simultaneously. In this project, I played with the notion of scale trying to bring global warming back to a human scale in order to create an emotional understanding of this emergency that is to help our planet. For this project, I explored various materials and approaches but it came back to photographing the growth of mould on a structure that I built out of clay.
Under Your Roof series is concerned with the conservation of the planet can you tell us about this from the concept to final pieces?
Argh, I can still remember the smell of fishes in my bathroom… For this photograph, I used two fishes and digital manipulation. When I created this photograph one of my main goals was to create a visual that reminded the audience of the role we play in global warming. Each of us from the comfort of our home has a small impact, but all together contribute immensely to the destruction of nature. So I created an image as a reminder that we all play a role and can all adjust our behaviour in order to protect what we rely on for our own survival, planet Earth.
As well as your series you also complete photography commissions. Do you have any particular favourites?
I very much enjoy studio portraits but I think one of my favourites has to be a show on stage that I got to photograph a couple of years ago, it was a fun experience.
What are you working on currently and what do you have planned?
I’m currently working on a final outcome for the project Entropic Breakfast which will be exhibited for my MA final show. I’m also working on a separate photography series with self-portraiture and taking part in various collaborative projects which hopefully will see the light of day soon.
Where can we see your work?
You can find my work at charlottefraigneau.com
