Love letter to Hydra by Elise Wouters

Hi everyone! I'm Elise - a London-based photographer & writer. I'll be sharing some stories about my art & my time spent on Hydra in September 2020. We begin right here at sunset, because most of my work is guided by natural light. The sun often directs my creative journey & informs my practice (not so easy for someone living in gloomy London). I spent the first few days on the island soaking up the sunlight & tracking its movements. How the slanted rays emerged from behind the hill & uncoiled my limbs in the morning, to the slow simmer of sunset into the sea at dusk.

During the 2020 lockdown, I turned to self-portraiture as a way of connecting with myself - the subject I know best, but also still have so much to learn about. For me, to take a self-portrait is to slow down time. It's to be vulnerable, yet in control. It's mediation & performance, as if we reach out to our most private truths, and witness how they respond.

Love letter to Hydra - Hydra, I love your secret morning swims & late night wine-stained lips. Your haunted wells & donkey shadows, the Cohen confessions around every corner. Love your azure curves & razor cliff edges. The way you smother mosquito bites in honey-glazed excess. how we carve out utopia until dawn cracks the sky in two and we start again. Hydra Hydra Hydra
- I found a million new words for blue, a million new ways to say I love you.

I hope I gave you a glimpse of why Hydra draws in so many artists & never quite lets them go again - it certainly is the case for me.