Unfocused Days

Series of 7 self-portraits, C-print on aluminium, 40x60cm, 81x54cm or 113×75 cm

edition of  10 + 2 AP

The photo series Unfocused Days creates an image of the inner world of the person portrayed. Not the beautiful, happy or balanced image that people often wish to convey, but the emotions that people are less likely to show: despair, doubt and sadness, as well as stillness and contemplation. Because the photo is out of focus, the viewer is enabled to project their own emotions onto what they see. Unfocused Days hangs at eye level so that it looks like you are looking into a mirror. The series of 7 resonates with the days of the week, but also with the lifecycle of 7 years. It shows a passage of time and it is a journey of emotions with its own dramaturgy. 

Roos van Geffen: “It is a series of self portraits. Over a period of two years, I made hundreds of blurred photographs using the self timer. I see the series as a diary of a dark period, in which photographing became a ritual that brought relief, the blur functioned as a mask, behind which I could hide my true feelings, but also allow them to flow. Unfocused Days  is inspired by the paintings of  Matthijs Maris  (1839–1917), who made grainy, almost abstract representations, often of women.”

Unfocused Days is inspired by the paintings of(1839–1917), who made vague, almost abstract portraits of mostly women.

The photo series Unfocused Days creates an image of the inner world of the person portrayed. Unfocused Days is inspired by the paintings of Matthijs Maris (1839–1917), who made vague, almost abstract portraits of mostly women.

Parool 28 maart 2019:”The first association is with the photos of the German photographer Michael Wolf. At Shimo-Kitazawa Station in Tokyo, he took photographs of squashed commuters behind stained glass. Almost anonymous. Just as you could characterize this ‘blurry’ photo with the word anonymous. It is an image by artist Roos van Geffen from the series Unfocused Days. With this she wants to show the inner world of the person portrayed. (…) Van Geffen hung the life-size photos at eye level, so that it is as if you are looking in the mirror. The blur makes identification with the person portrayed impossible and the viewer can ‘project his own feeling onto what he sees’. Van Geffen was also inspired by the ‘faintly grained’ canvases of painter Matthijs Maris (1839-1917).” Maarten Moll.

Exhibited:  2022 Palazzo Barolo Turin, 2020 Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam, 2019 VOX POP Amsterdam, 2018 Concertgemaal Amsterdam