Gelatin silver print, printed in 2014 40 x 30 cm (15.7 x 11.8 in)
Signed, dated, numbered (neg. no.) and annotated by the photographer in pencil on the reverse
PROVENANCE directly from the photographer
LITERATURE Jane Evelyn Atwood, Extérieur Nuit, Photo Poche, Arles 1998, cover and p. 19; Jane Evelyn Atwood (#125), Photo Poche Monograph, Arles 2010, p. 49.

Two young women standing next to each other, framed by the backdrop of a sparse wall, their heads slightly lowered and eyes almost closed. Both are wearing dark knee-length coats and high leather boots. As if seeking reassurance, they hold each other’s hands. The double portrait Blind twins by Jane Evelyn Atwood was taken as part of the series blind children, for which the photographer won the W. Eugene Smith Award as early as 1980; in total, she worked on the series for ten years.
Atwood, who has lived in Paris since 1971 and has worked as a photographer since 1976, is known for her stamina. She devotes herself to topics that are otherwise suppressed, silenced or ignored, making those who are rejected or forgotten by society the protagonists of her images. She creates highly intimate portraits that testify to her personal commitment and passion. Atwood’s working method and topics are strongly reminiscent of those of Diane Arbus, whom she cites as an inspiration and role model.
Atwood’s photographs are compelling in their striking, compositional beauty, despite – or perhaps because of – her unsentimental way of documenting what is often the brutal reality of the world. In the images of the blind children, it is the fascination for those “who must live without sight in a seer’s world” which creates the urgency of these intimate studies: it is the Blind twins’ intangible, downcast gaze and their rigid posture, making them appear slightly lost, which constitutes the tension of the present photograph.