Ingrid Dorner - Zimmer23 & Merveille

Zimmer23 explores the interior world, a space of solitude and introspection, while Merveille opens onto the exterior world, nature and freedom. Although each photograph can exist on its own, like the cover of a novel inviting us to imagine a story, the two series are also connected through a dialogue between these opposite worlds.

When these two worlds come together, they open up a third space: a space of doubt and uncertainty. The viewer begins to question what they see. Are we looking at the same little girl? Is she living in these spaces, or imagining them? Is the outside world a dream, or is it the interior that feels unreal? And where does she truly belong?

We can never be completely sure of what we see, what we understand, or even what we feel about these images. Reality and imagination seem to overlap, leaving room for different interpretations. This space of doubt and uncertainty is what connects my photographic series. It is a space where nothing is certain, where the viewer is free to question what they see and imagine their own story.

And perhaps this is the idea at the heart of my artistic work: nothing is ever completely fixed. What we believe to be real can always be questioned, and another story is always possible.

Zimmer23-01, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 49,2 x 50,3 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille02, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48,2 x 46,1 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-04, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48,4 x 48,4 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille03, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,5 x 48,4 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-05, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46 x 46 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille04, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,9 x 45,9 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-08, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48 x 46,5 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23 & Merveille exist as two zones of the same motion. Not separate places, but different ways a sensation can appear, compressed or open, shadowed or vibrant, inward or projected.

Nothing indicates whether one moves from one space to the other. Perhaps nothing moves at all. Perhaps the shift happens elsewhere. Some images may be lived, others imagined, or maybe the distinction doesn’t hold.

Merveille05, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,9 x 47 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-11, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48x48,5 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille06, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,9 x 47 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-13, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48 x 48,7 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille07, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,6 x 44,8 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille08, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,9 x 46,1 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-06, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 47 x 45 cm - Edition of 3

Ambiguity isn’t an effect here, it is the condition of the work. The heart of this diptych is neither the room nor the landscape, but the space that connects them.

Zimmer23 & Merveille suggest that our gaze is never neutral: it carries our dreams, our fractures, our lingering traces. And sometimes, what we see tells more about us than about the world itself.

Merveille09, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,5 x 47,9 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille10, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,5 x 47,9 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-09, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48,5x48,3 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille11, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,2 x 47,9 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-14, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48 x 48,7 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille12, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,8 x 48 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille13, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,2 x 44,7 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-02, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46 x 48 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille14, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,8 x 45,1 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille15, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 45,8 x 49,3 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-07, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46 x 48,7 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille16, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48 x 48,1 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-03, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 47 x 48 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille17, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 44,8 x 48,3 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-04, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 48,4 x 48,4 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille18, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46 x 47 cm - Edition of 3

Zimmer23-10, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process- 48 x 48,5 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille19, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46,2 x 48,2 cm - Edition of 3

Merveille20, 2025 - Silver-gelatin print. Analog darkroom process - 46,2 x 46,7 cm - Edition of 3