Charlotte is a new photography book by Yana Rotner, which focuses on a series of portraits she made of Charlotte Casiraghi, princess of Monaco, philosopher, mother, muse.
Yana Rotner’s photographs begin as moving images. Working primarily with 16mm film, she records short sequences of her subjects and later isolates individual frames, transforming fleeting gestures and expressions into still photographs. By extracting images from the flow of time rather than capturing a single decisive moment, her portraits evoke a sense of quiet suspension, existing somewhere between cinema and photography. Alongside these film-based works, Rotner also creates photograms in the darkroom, exploring themes of memory, presence, and the passage of time through both lens-based and camera-less processes.
“While it is admitted that a painter makes a portrait, it will more readily be said that a photographer takes a portrait. A photograph can indeed cause a feeling of predation, especially when it comes to one’s own image. As told by the illustrious portraitist Félix Nadar, Honoré de Balzac feared that if he agreed to pose for a photographer, the latter would steal a layer of his soul. For the model, sitting means taking a risk before the gaze of the one who is taking the image, but it also means taking a risk before the gaze of those who will look at their portrait. Charlotte is a person, and a personality, accustomed to the multiple publications of her image, and Yana, a photographer, more specifically here a portraitist, knows, or rather perceives it. This is why she reverses the photographic act as a means of seeing more clearly and not giving into the temptation of the basic shooting.” Francoise Paviot
The book is being designed by Field Day Studio, and will be printed in August. Pre-Orders are available now.
