The temporary exhibition - "Embodied Intimacies": Primitive Women 2 - Flesh and Earth

Updated on 15 August 2026

Welcome to this third post of the month. After storytelling and graphics, today we enter the most sensitive sphere of the studio: Embodied Intimacies. This is the moment of the month when I invite you to slow down, to come closer. This category is dedicated to sensuality, the grain of the skin and the authenticity of stolen moments. Less pose, more presence... it is an invitation to see beauty at its most fleshly and most human.

Primitive Women 2

Flesh and Earth

Primitive Women 2 - Flesh and Earth

The raw power of tribal textures and clay sculpted by light.

Some studio sessions call for stripping the gaze of all artifice to return to the essential: primal matter. For this new instalment of my logbook, I wanted to explore the archetype of the prehistoric, tribal, original woman. The intention here is not historical, it is purely plastic and symbolic. The trigger was working the material directly on the skin. We covered the model in clay of different shades — deep ochres, chalky whites, burnt siennas.

As it dried under the heat of the spotlights, the clay came alive, cracking, drawing a unique texture, a second, mineral skin. Faced with this living canvas, my sculptor’s past immediately took over again. I did not try to photograph a body, but to bring out a form, to accentuate the reliefs of a back or the curve of a hip turned into a true cliff of earth. The art of the nude becomes here a geological study. For the technique, I chose a very hard, raking, almost surgical side light, essential to catch every micro-crack in the clay and give volume to the pigment. An anecdote comes back to me: in the middle of the session, when the silence was total, the model took a deep breath, deliberately breaking the thin crust of earth that covered the solar plexus.

This visual contrast between the smooth or clay-covered skin that appeared and the matt surface of the dried rock dictated the whole rest of the series. Art photography comes into its own in these unforeseen moments. The model is not a passive object; she embodies a telluric force, a wild and immutable sovereignty that sweeps time aside. Primitive women of flesh and earth.

To see this week’s exhibitions or all of my work, here are the options:

Access with a member account	The temporary exhibitions	The Reserve the Patrons’ Circle

I hope this sensual interlude touched you. Only one last door remains to be opened to close the month in style. Next week, I will unveil the What’s New in the Studio series, the final bouquet where I allow myself every technical experiment and the most accomplished stagings. Be there for the end of the cycle!

Accès mécènes

Yohann

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