Jouisssance: photography | Mysite

Josie Gould

a contemporary landscape painter

and photographer

'When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy' Rumi

Although my original training was as a documentary photographer here I am exploring my current interest in affect. In particular I am fascinated by how our surroundings affect and impact our senses and feelings to restore a sense of aliveness. I have had a lot of fun creating this work which explores Jouissance:

Jouissance:

" Colour is a kind of bliss, jouissance, ecstasy, like a closing eyelid, a tiny fainting spell, a lapse, a descent, a fall, having the power to annihilate" Roland Barthes (1986) The Responsibility of Forms, Blackwell p166.

The renowned Canadian Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman with whom I studied for many years suggests that 'mystery is the depth of the sacred' (Coming Home to Myself 2001). In this body of work I want to capture the elusive essence of flowers.

These photographs respond to a poem which I wrote for the recent exhibition "Responses, between painters and poets" which was a collaboration between Contemporary Mark Makers and Moor Poets.