Face You. 75 × 92 cm. lambda print.  2004 © DOROTHÉE BAUMANN

–

First impressions: a broken doll, a gaping void in its back, tossed into the street… Then: a mirror, a face-like blank slate, reflecting nothing… Slowly we worked it out: a real body, a girl or a woman, holding a mirror to her face for protection. But protection from what? From us? From our gaze? We cling to the old adage that the face mirrors the soul. Give us your face, we demand. Bare your soul! She resists. Giving up the mirror would mean abandonning her dream. – Text of  WILLIAM A. EWING, Face. The New Photographic Portrait, Lausanne, Musée de l’Élysée

Swiss photographer, video artist and teacher DOROTHÉE BAUMANN proves that it takes so much more than just taking a pretty picture to call yourself a photographer. This pleasantly haunting photo is just a few from her fictional-documentary portfolio.