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Photographer Marie Hyld posts numerous pics of their happy relationship on Instagram. Not uncommon? Indeed! Because this intimacy is an optical illusion! In reality, she only met her "partner" a few minutes beforehand.
Could you imagine going on a first date with a Tinder match and lounging in bed with him after a few minutes? Or naked in the shower, on the kitchen cabinet or window sill? Or - to sit on the toilet in front of him? No? Marie Hyld does.
The artist started a photo project that she later called "Lifeconstruction". The 25-year-old wanted to "demonstrate the superficiality of the online world". The Dane was annoyed by the perfect happy-life posts that we scroll through every day. "People create their own world in social networks and I wanted to know what it takes." Hyld talks about the beginnings of her idea. About matching people who talked about their trivial lives. They were ready for something that would kick them out of their comfort zone. "My suggestion to shoot intimate photos together in their home was well received," says Marie. The requirement was to meet and immediately pretend to have been in a relationship for years.
Relationship for a shoot
Which motives would arise from these role-playing games? When looking at the resulting pictures, one can hardly believe that the people on Hyld's side are not actually lovers or long-term partners. A borderline experience for Marie. She openly talks about the difficulties she had to contend with on "Lifeconstruction": "At the beginning of every meeting I was a nervous wreck. I didn't know these people, didn't know anything about them or how far I could go. I knew yes nothing about her. But I had to let go and pretend that everything was great. A relationship that didn't exist at all should be perfectly staged. We also acted as if we were a couple between the shoots or at least knew each other well."
It is hard to believe that with so much depicted closeness, intimacy did not actually occur! Marie answers somewhat evasively: "I wanted to create ironic closeness. And yes, it worked with the shoots. But that's also the message I want to send with my photos: We have to look for these intimate moments and see each other more often in real life."
Marie about one of their encounters
But let's let Marie tell how difficult it was for her to draw the line between reality and deception. Commenting on a pic, she wrote: "As a greeting he gave me a potted plant, just like on a real date. And it was so. Thor was German and had that penetrating accent that I loved. He was a handsome man and was himself Undoubtedly aware of it! Ten minutes later, I got in this weird mood and began to wonder if we really had the same intentions or if I had gotten into some kind of date trap, and if so, 'How the hell should I? get out of there? ' (…) Anyway, he gave everything and that made me smile (…) I put the camera next to his big bed on which he was lying and slowly crawled to his chest. My head lay on his upper body and listened to his strong heartbeat. He stroked affectionately my shoulder with his thumb. I was fascinated by the physical warmth and caress of a complete stranger I met a few minutes ago, but eventually I faced the fact that I just couldn't remove the remaining tension within me. I broke off and we moved the photo shoot to his apartment, where there were plenty of strollers 'just to be on the safe side.' We talked. He rolled up his sleeves, spread his arms, bent his legs to pick me up and laughed out loud. After the shoot, I sat in my car, grabbed my camera and looked for a believable picture - I got stuck with one that made us look like a couple doing that clung to each other with need. I knew then that no one would ever be able to tell the truth about this tense meeting …"
