Deborah Benzaquen: Sweet Surrender

A coming of age visual story from Casablanca

Deborah Benzaquen, Adam ,Mia, Marina, et Grecia from the series Sweet Surrender (2017). Courtesy of the artist.

With text by Chama Tahiri, artistic director and cultural journalist.

When Casablanca born and raised photographer Deborah Benzaquen was commissioned in 2017 for an exhibition on ‘Eternal Youth,’ she chose to focus on adolescence as a timeless research subject. She had known Mia, one of her models, since she was a little kid. At only 17, the pixie haircut girl had always been a brilliant and creative child but also very bold and opinionated, maybe a bit of a rebel in her own way. She introduced the artist to her high school friends with whom she formed a very tight and free-spirited group. They talked about identity, gender, and sexuality, and what all that could mean in a such a transitional phase of a young adult’s life. The chemistry was so obvious that they quickly moved from a Whatsapp group to a shooting set.

In her creative process, benzaquen never plans too far ahead- she goes with her guts and heart, and follows her intuition, thus creating the most candid and authentic collaborations. The artist indeed refers to her work as “theirs” since all of her shoots are a form of dialogue with her (mostly) real life, non- professional models. They usually take the time to get to know each other, and their aesthetic universes eventually blend to perfection. But it is most likely Benzaquen’s way of creating a form of intimacy even before setting her frame, doubled with her great listening skills, that create that unique bond of trust, and allow her to tell the most sensitive visual stories.

Here, the more Benzaquen got to know Mia’s group, the more she knew she wanted her pictures to be clean and minimalistic. Except for a few yellow flowers, the artist surrendered her usual favorite props, gathered over the years when she was a movie set decorator, and only played with the natural highlights and shadows of a charming old-fashioned Casablanca apartment.

The result is both very raw and very soft at once, and conveys a feeling of blissful nostalgia. The unedited pictures reveal the marks of adolescence, but the teenagers gracefully turned their vulnerability into a statement of power. Their striking confidence and carefree spirit clashes with their young age, and this constant duality resonates with the underlying question of gender, as well as the tension between the threat of the outside world, and the safety of the room in which these teenagers can be whoever they want, sheltered from peer pressure and social expectations.

The intimacy of the photos is enhanced by the subtle suggestion of modesty, and the context of the images given the controversy of sexual orientation in Morocco. Benzaquen is very aware of this, and is careful to never put her models in compromising situations. Speaking to her models for sweet surrender, the artist says “They were such quiet forces, which was really reassuring since I’m the opposite .” Being very shy and self-conscious herself- a form of humbleness in disguise- Benzaquen never forces a pose and hardly ever directs her subjects. On the contrary, she thrives on challenges and limitations, which in this series has resulted in something pure and more subtly suggestive. “Not showing a nipple can be even more exciting,” Benzaquen states.

But the true strength of the series might be its universality. Stripped down from any context those are just regular teenagers, with their dreams, flaws, secrets, and dyed hair. Teenagers who refuse to be labeled. Masculine and feminine, young and mature, aggressive and fragile : they are all of that and more. They are works in progress, shaping their identity as they grow free and fabulous. For Benzaquen, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this series tells one of the oldest coming of age stories ever told- a story of letting go and choosing love, beyond prejudices. A ‘sweet surrender’ to beauty and sensuality, in all of their raw forms.