Au volant de mes tourments

Title: At the Wheel of My Torments

Artist: Abisror.M

Medium: Black and white photography, long exposure and motion blur

Dimensions: 100/150cm

Date: 2008

Artistic Description:

At the Wheel of My Torments is a haunting photographic piece that fuses abstraction, motion, and emotion into a single blurred vision. The image, rendered in stark black and white, appears at first chaotic — a rush of streaked lights, ghostlike shapes, and a central dark form resembling the back of a car. But upon deeper observation, it reveals itself as a poetic meditation on solitude, memory, and the psychological landscapes of night driving.

The technique — likely a slow shutter or intentional camera movement — creates a sensation of disorientation, mimicking the mental fog of introspection or emotional distress. The blurred lights, undulating like waves, suggest urban neon or highway lights, creating a visual rhythm that echoes the pulse of thought.

A poem, delicately inscribed at the bottom, anchors the piece in vulnerability. Written in French, it speaks of illusions, internal struggles, and fleeting hopes. It transforms the photograph into a lyrical self-portrait — less about the car itself, and more about the invisible journey of the mind behind the wheel.

Influences:

This work draws inspiration from several artistic lineages:

• Daido Moriyama & Japanese Provoke Photography: The gritty, out-of-focus style and urban loneliness echo the raw visual language of post-war Japanese photographers who used blur and grain to express existential disquiet.

• Surrealism: The fusion of real and imagined, especially through motion and the unconscious, recalls the dreamlike instability found in the works of Man Ray or André Breton’s writings.

• Film Noir & Expressionist Cinema: The stark contrast and chiaroscuro lighting suggest a cinematic influence, especially noir films where light and shadow evoke internal conflict and tension.

• Poetic Symbolism: The inclusion of the text gives the work a dimension akin to the Symbolist poets (Baudelaire, Rimbaud), where external reality serves as a reflection of inner turmoil.

Interpretation:

This is more than a photograph — it is a confession in light and shadow. A man alone, not simply driving, but traversing the labyrinth of his own psyche. Through the haze of light and thought, the artist invites the viewer into an intimate space of fragility, where motion is memory, and blur is both a wound and a balm.