Marie Le Moigne: Photography as a Space to Inhabit

Your research explores the themes of the body, identity, and mental health through photography. What led you to choose this medium, and what personal experiences prompted you to undertake this research?

I began this series around 2013, without being fully aware of what was taking shape. The title Habiter le Trouble emerged later, around 2021–2022. Ever since I first started using a camera, I have felt the need to make images, through both photography and video. Over the years, I have built an archive of images centered on my body and the landscapes around me. It was only with hindsight that I began to understand what these images revealed about my inner states. Today, this remains an ongoing exploration. Some photographic prints are worked on by hand using fire: fire destroys, but it also reveals something else.

Since your project is so emotionally charged, how much room do you leave for improvisation during the creative process?

I leave room for the unexpected: the place and the moment trigger the image. My research notebooks inform the way I see, but I do not prepare a fixed scenario. I photograph landscapes as I walk; for self-portraits, I allow my body to inhabit the space and the image to emerge through this encounter.

In a society where mental health is often neglected, the concept of identity has become an obsession, appearances are everything, and the boundaries between the public and private spheres are increasingly blurred; what is your opinion on this? What can be done to overcome the issues associated with these trends?

Mental health remains too often a taboo subject. For me, it is a political and societal issue, not merely a medical one. Self-portraiture has allowed me to reclaim my body during periods of dissociation. My work also reflects our relationship with images, self-representation and the gaze of others, particularly on social media. Habiter le Trouble emerges from a deeply intimate space, which the exhibition transforms into a shared experience. On social media, images are more likely to be taken out of context. I want to make these experiences visible without revealing everything: to retain the freedom to choose what we show, how we show it and in what context, without reducing our identity to the image we project of ourselves.