Morning Light, 2016-2024

Benhelima creates timeless images with Polaroids, which he often reworks in high-gloss Cibachromes. These jostle the viewer back and forth between past and present. They create a sense of dislocation and mask the notion of truth. Charif Benhelima has a highly personal style that is without pathos, even though his work revolves around his struggle with identity. His images are inseparable from their creator, but they are also open to the viewer's own interpretation. His exploration of ‘the feeling of being an outsider’ returns in each new series in a different visual language. This is also the case with the Morning Light series. Besides analogue photography, he experimented with a Polaroid 600 for decades. The Polaroid 600 Instant Film is an instant film with an iconic white border. Each shot produces a unique instant photo, which may conceal either an optimistic or problematic message. Charif Benhelima reduces technical control to a minimum, experimenting with exposure times and pushing back against standard photographic conventions. He manually intervenes in mechanised (reproductive) processes: he paints on the Polaroids, which are unique in themselves. He himself refers to this as retouching. That is how he explores the limits of image legibility and forces the viewer to dwell longer on the conveyed information in order to get to the essence. In an interview, he clarified that "it's (...) about appearing and disappearing, the present and the past. But also, about the question: what is reality and what is not". That is how he develops a suggestive form language that leaves a lot of room for interpretation and raises questions rather than provides answers. To the artist, Morning Light is not a finished product but consists of fragments of an idea. The morning light represents new life and the hope for a future, one we must work towards together and in solidarity.