Journey to Morning, Louise at 37 weeks

Journey to Morning, Louise at 37 weeks

Journey to Morning

Blaide Lallemand & Hilary Cuerden-Clifford

In sleep, our movements are no longer directed by our conscious selves, other body rhythms are revealed. Something deeper in the nature of the person, other truths are brought to the surface.

From 2003-2018, Blaide and Hilary have been photographing people of various ages, gender and cultural backgrounds in the state of sleep. Using black and white 35mm film, with unusually long thirty minute exposures, these photographic portraits, of compressed time, have been sequenced into video.

In this video we see the journey of Louise who was 37 weeks pregnant with her first child.

These are explorative portraits, taken in the studio, where the person is naked, removed of all their material possessions and left alone to sleep. Here the viewers’ attention is focused on the body language of the subject, gaining insights into how they carry themselves through life.

The photographs map the sleepers’ uninhibited movements. They are no longer aware of the photographer as the image is building up, they are not consciously reacting to the camera and we are not seeing them frozen in time but travelling through it.

These sleepers are vulnerable and unassailable, in their own worlds and yet visible to the viewers. Sleep is an experience all humans share, it is a fundamental part of being alive and when we are asleep, we are perhaps most ourselves, most unique.

Of note, this video is intended to be viewed in portrait orientation, not landscape.

Journey to Morning, Louise at 37 weeks