NUA is a photographic project resulting from a fortuitous and decisive encounter between a movement artist and a photographer, both inspired by the body and nudity in relation to nature.
NUA is a photographic project resulting from a fortuitous and decisive encounter between a movement artist and a photographer, both inspired by the body and nudity in relation to nature.
The authors
Etienne is an author and photographer. He was born in Marseille and lives in the Hautes-Alpes.
Photography, which he has practised since adolescence, has always been a guiding principle for him, and he has devoted himself entirely to it for a long time.acada".
Maïra is a multidisciplinary Brazilian artist. She came to Europe twelve years ago to study at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (ESAC) in Brussels, where she graduated as a trapeze artist, and now lives in Marseille. She is a mother, yoga teacher and passionate about the performing arts and movement. She is currently writing her first solo show, "Macacada".
The project
Maïra met Etienne Renzo during a photo shoot in May 2022 in the Hautes Alpes. As a professional circus artist and dancer, she has been exploring the relationship between nudity and wild environments for a number of years.
Etienne has always photographed faces and bodies in nature, the nature of flesh and the taste of skin. This collected pollen has become the essence of his photographic approach over time.
Maïra:
I feel that it was my Quilombola* and indigenous ancestors who gave me the tools to be able to connect with other forms of life in nature.
But it's also thanks to my background in the movement arts, through circus, dance, yoga, climbing and capoeira, that I feel I can dance, massage, stretch or embrace the body of a tree or stone with my body.
* Quilombo is a self-sufficient organisation that originated in Brazil during colonisation. Enslaved people who managed to escape their condition as slaves found refuge in the deep forest in a confluence of indigenous and African cosmogonies. An example of resistance that persists to this day, but not without difficulty.
Etienne:
Dans mes photographies je cherche à retrouver la dimension mythologique de l’univers, ce Chaos luxuriant, le mystère de la terre au limon, de la chair au corps. Je veux retrouver l’innocence perdue, la réinventer avec tendresse et volupté.
L’insurmontable réconciliation de la nature et de l’hominidé naturel, celui d’avant l’homme, provoque tous les possibles auquel je veux croire.
The NUA Book with full text and photos is available on the "contact-shop" page.