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Sophie Ballmer

Awarded

Sophie Ballmer

Photo research 'Portraits'

Photography

Jury report

Window on an Unknown World
So­phie Ballmer was com­mis­sioned by the Lau­sanne foun­da­tion Coup d'Pouce to doc­u­ment the hol­i­day of a group of men­tally dis­abled peo­ple. The young pho­tog­ra­pher rose to the chal­lenge with enor­mous sen­si­tiv­ity. On re­flec­tion, Ballmer de­cided to take a less de­tached ap­proach and, in­stead of a pho­to­graphic doc­u­men­ta­tion, chose to make a se­ries of por­traits. In an im­pro­vised stu­dio, she pho­tographed each per­son in­di­vid­u­ally. The re­sult is a se­ries of in­ti­mate and mov­ing por­traits.So­phie Ballmer asked each of the young peo­ple and adults to bring along an ob­ject of their choice to the sit­ting. This small de­tail al­lowed them to con­tribute to the com­po­si­tion of the por­trait, and the at­mos­phere dur­ing the sit­tings was quite clearly re­laxed and pleas­ant for all in­volved. The ob­ject is not al­ways im­me­di­ately ev­i­dent; it might sim­ply be a favourite sweater or base­ball cap. In some cases, the mere pres­ence of the sit­ter is enough for So­phie Ballmer to bring out their in­di­vid­u­al­ity of char­ac­ter. In many of the por­traits, the sit­ters are so in­tro­spec­tive that they seem to have for­got­ten that the cam­era is there. Oth­ers com­mu­ni­cate strongly with the pho­tog­ra­pher, ob­vi­ously en­joy­ing them­selves or re­turn­ing her gaze quizzi­cally.This award-win­ning se­ries of por­traits could so eas­ily have had a dis­turb­ing edge to it. Yet So­phie Ballmer man­aged to look at her sit­ters through the cam­era lens in a way that con­veys in­ter­est, but never voyeurism. So­phie Ballmer opens a win­dow on an un­known world that touches us pro­foundly. She shows self-as­sured and dig­ni­fied in­di­vid­u­als, and her pho­tographs ra­di­ate a clear and po­etic calm.
Anna Niederhäuser

Biography

Sophie Ballmer
Born in
1978
Education
designer HES en communication visuelle

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