Mirror Musings is a photographic series and larger project collaboration between creatives Débora Marques Faria (@deboramarquesfaria) and Rossana Mendes Fonseca (@popmolecule) from a project called Exuberant Ritual of Nothingness. Multiple narratives emerge from this dream-like series. Mirror Musings was created in an abandoned house and uses the objects remaining in the home within the various narratives. These possessions left behind by the lives that once existed in the space are used to express ideas by Rossana and Débora. The process of creating the images begins as if playing a game of dress up. It is a way to express themselves and create something out of nothing. “We seek to perform an exuberant ritual of nothingness, only inscribing it in photographs.” The series gives a brief flash of girlhood, dress up play and the rite of passage that is coming into womanhood.
The work is intended to evoke phantasmagoria through the dress, posing of the subject, and use of props – especially mirrors. Looking at the mirror while being photographed, each scene is some kind of personal performance for the one behind the camera, only to be captured in that one instance and then to forever disappear. “Evoking phantasmagoria and the world through the looking glass, we dance and gesture, we stare and play, we wear the clothes of each other, impersonating each persona or mask as characters of each other’s gaze and reflection.” The viewer is not shown much of the subjects faces in Mirror Musings. In many photographs we see the back or side of a head with the subject often looking at a mirror or glancing out the window. Window light, shadow on skin, texture - the work has a bizarre, fantastic, dream-like quality that brings the viewer to question, Have I dreamt of this place before?
Débora Marques Faria and Rossana Mendes Fonseca
© Débora Marques Faria and Rossana Mendes Fonseca
Débora lives in Portugal and works as a stylist. She is passionate about writing, pen to paper. She considers herself a student of all things she is passionate about including dance, fashion, medicine, altered states of consciousness, existence, and art as being.
Débora Marques Faria and Rossana Mendes Fonseca
© Débora Marques Faria and Rossana Mendes Fonseca
Rossana too, lives in Portugal and works as a product styling and photography creative director. Rossana is inspired by time and memory. She is a persistent writer and loves being in the darkroom.