Carine Ninop

Hi everyone, my name is Carine Ninop. I'm a French photographer based in London. I'm excited to share my work with you all thanks to Photofusion.

Last year, I left the corporate world to pursue my passion for photography. Photofusion was the first stop on my journey. Through their highly recommended 'Step up' programme, I got out of my comfort zone, explored multiple genres and found myself drawn to portraiture. I've always been fascinated with people, cultures and languages which often inspire my work and focus on Street photography but this time, I embarked on a self portrait project. 

I created this series called 'Womanhood'

It's about self perception and challenging what it means to be a 'woman'. What does it really mean to you to be a woman, if you remove the expectations put upon you, if you were born in a society where the male gaze was not predominant as a point of reference to your womanhood and ultimately your worth in this society, would you find yourself feminine? This project is cathartic, it's about acceptance, struggle, beliefs and perceptions of what is attached to being born in a 'woman's' body; what it's like to enjoy it but equally feeling extremely restrained in the definition of what it means.

Who are you when it's just you and yourself only, with your perception of your body, your nakedness, your clothes, your makeup, your smile, your own definition? 

This series ‘Identity’ is about the fleeting moments when you travel to a new place, it's about those people who are strangers to you but yet, you get a glimpse of their life during a split second and you try to construct a narrative around their daily life through a photo. It's that feeling of connection with someone, that sense of common humanity regardless of apparent differences. As a mixed race person, going to Sri Lanka in particular was also unconsciously about looking for similarities, physical and cultural similarities, searching for a part of me, away from home and finding a certain sense of commonality. 

Photos 1 to 4 were taken in Sri Lanka in 2019.

Photo 5 was taken in Agistri, Greece in 2022.

This series of photos is called 'Urban Jungle". Those moments have been captured between London and Paris. It's about the mundane moments of living in a city, its sometimes contradictions, a very monochrome tone where everyday feels the same but equally those moments where you can catch some sort of 'fresh' air in the middle of concrete blocks everywhere. 

Some photos were taken with an analog camera as part of my course 'Step Up' at Photofusion where I got the opportunity to be taught how to print photos and enjoy the peaceful pace of the darkroom.

Thank you everyone for stepping into my little world and thank you Photofusion for this experience! This is the end of my takeover!

All images © Carine Ninop.