CAROL NEWHOUSE & CARMEN WINANT
Double Carol Newhouse & Carmen Winant, Les Rencontres d’Arles, 2025..
The mirrors in Double are hidden among the other works, aiming to include the viewer by having them unexpectedly catch sight of themselves, perhaps noticing something about who they are. For the artists, the mirrors also function as a material reference. There are many mirrors within the pictures from the old Ovulars that placing them on the outside creates a kind of double exposure—a doubling in itself.
As Carol points out in an email: ‘In that moment, it can feel as though the three of us—the viewer, Carmen and I—are held together in the same instant, captured in the same image. It’s instantaneous, like the click of a shutter or the glance of an eye. It is also intergenerational, echoing the passage of time.’ Carol sees this as an inclusive encounter that suggests movement and the potential for freedom and creativity: ‘To me, all of this describes the female gaze, which I could also call the feminist gaze.’
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Carol shares a thought about how she never anticipated how her work in the 1970s—those ideas and images—would eventually find their way into the world. The footage and the creative process had never seemed as if it would last beyond the moment; the women hadn’t been thinking about the future, just doing what felt right at the time. Now, years later, people are still asking her what they were thinking when they made their work. The fact that it continues to resonate with so many is a surprising reminder of how far it has travelled and how deeply it has impacted others. It was serendipity that led Carmen to rediscover this work almost a decade ago, bringing it back into the light through her book and the several shows she’s curated with Carol. Their ongoing conversations around using photography as evidence led to this one-year workshop where together these two friends have created new narratives. As Carmen later writes, there is poetry in the fact that their pictures and stories have quite literally merged on celluloid.
The photographic works from the Ovulars explore the construction of histories, as well as the significance of the photographs themselves—images designed to challenge the existing power structures within the medium. The double exposures created by Carmen and Carol are part of this lineage, contributing to an ongoing feminist photographic movement. Their work not only reflects history but actively reshapes it.
This year has been an incredible one for Objektiv Press and our Afterimage series. As we wrap up 2025, we’ve been sharing excerpts from our books every Monday leading up to Christmas. We leave you with these words from Double by Carol Newhouse & Carmen Winant, Objektiv #30. We’ll return next year with more. Until then, we wish you moments of peace and connection.