Noëlle Grosso : : The Mute Siren Series

This is a series of photographs in which my intentions is for the observer to experience a subtle
form of voyeurism, experiencing a single moment in the middle of a series of events.

The title of the series, The Mute Sirens, embodies several principal characteristics that inform the
men and women portrayed in my photographs. A siren is a beautiful and seductive woman, a
nymph who lures men to their destruction. She is a femme fatale who willingly sings the song of
catastrophe. The mute represents the undercurrent of emotion that sits in opposition to the siren:
the man. He will try to love, soothe and protect her or he will capture, control and violate her.
When men and women enact these agendas, either consciously or unconsciously, they experience
emotional collisions which bring either great pleasure or devastating despair.

It is the interactions between men and women: the experiences between them causing the different
emotions to collide, whether from the past or the immediate present. These relationships can be
complicated and can cause great pleasure or devastating despair. This starts at the moment of
conception until the end of one's life. We all carry our secrets and feelings, hiding them from others,
even from the closest around us in fear of judgement and loss. We control our love, lust, hatred and
fantasies to protect our persona, but in our hiding we can find ourselves in dangerous and sometimes
violent situations. We need to look more closely to notice the emotion just under the surface, because
all is not as it seems.