Ctrl+P: Photography Taken Offline – Francine Fleischer

We are excited to feature the work of Francine Fleischer as the next Ctrl+P: Photography Taken Offline artist. Francine Fleischer was born and raised in New York City, spending most summers in Paris. Her exposure to the arts started as a child when she studied ballet with the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theater, performing in the Nutcracker in Lincoln Center under the direction of George Balanchine. She received a BFA in Painting and Photography from SUNY at Purchase. Francine has worked with Annie Liebovitz, Kelly Klein and Michel Comte.

Swim: The Water in Between

This series was photographed in a magical yet mysterious swimming hole that had been used by an ancient civilization for human sacrifice. Today it is used by swimmers for recreational swim. I’ve been returning to this spot to photograph the ever-changing cast of characters in this consistent pool.

The dark waters are deep below the earth’s surface and lit from above by a hole in the ground revealing sky and sunlight. When I look down on the swimmers in these inky waters, it is a bit like looking down the rabbit hole into another world. Sometimes it is an allegorical scene illustrating my subterranean dreams, other times I am a merely a voyeur, capturing the body politics and random scenarios, the contradictions of light and dark, levity and gravity, reality and revery, tribulations and joy and of course sinking and swimming.

Each time I return here, I am drawn in by these contradictions, the human conversations and the random choreography below.