Carla Bernhardt: The skin as a sensitive surface

Photographer Carla Bernhardt creates a poetic and documentary body of work that explores the identity transformations of the Carnival in Guadeloupe, the Caribbean island where she has lived and worked since 2014. With a photographic trajectory that began in adolescence upon discovering her parents’ camera, she develops a practice where the image functions as a necessary language to “say what cannot be said with words,” pay tribute to everyday life, and write fragments of stories that escape the verbal. Her photography emerges as a record of what moves her, a testimony to the ephemeral, and a celebration of the ordinary transformed into the extraordinary through the lens.

Her portfolio “intimate metamorphosis“, a finalist in the FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025, is a project carried out over several years during the Carnival seasons with the “Groupes à Po.” The Mas à Po – full-body costumes that are a cultural and identity hallmark of the Guadeloupe Carnival – draw their strength from ancestral traditions, and Bernhardt captures them through windows, half-open doors, and mirrors, intruding into the intimacy of those whose bodies are transformed during this period of festivity and release. The metamorphosis questions not only cultural and Creole identity but also the relationship with the body, gender, and society: the skin covers itself while the gaze reveals itself, transforming the epidermis into a sensitive surface whose lines can be displaced, a medium that opens infinite possibilities for self-writing to approach the plurality and complexity of being. The work, both poetic and documentary, aspires to be sensitive, aesthetic, and narrative.

Learn more about this visual exploration of Caribbean masks and the projects in development in the following interview.

Imagem do Portfólio
metamorfose íntima, de Carla Bernhardt, finalista do Prêmio Portfólio FotoDoc 2025

How old are you? Where do you currently live and work?

I am 48 years old and have been living and working in Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island, since 2014.

Tell us about your journey in photography. When did you start photographing and why? What role does photography play in your life?

Photography has been part of my life since my teenage years, when I discovered my parents’ camera. I take photos to remember, to keep a record of what strikes me, to bear witness and write pieces of stories, to tell what cannot be said with words, to pay tribute to ordinary everyday events. I experience photography as a necessity and a language.

Tell us about your finalist work for the FotoDoc Photo Contest 2025. When and where was it created? What is its concept? How does it fit into your photographic practice?

Intimate Metamorphosis is a project carried out over several years during carnival season with the “Groupes à Po.” The Mas à Po, a cultural and identity-defining feature of carnival in Guadeloupe, draw their strength from ancestral traditions.

Through a window, a half-open door, or a mirror, I intrude into the intimacy of those whose bodies are transformed during this period of revelry and letting go.

The metamorphosis questions not only cultural and Creole identity, but also the relationship to the body, gender, and society.

The skin is covered and the gaze is revealed.

The skin becomes a sensitive surface whose lines can be shifted, a medium that opens up infinite possibilities for writing about oneself in order to get closer to the plurality and complexity of being.

Both poetic and documentary, this photographic work aims to be sensitive, aesthetic, and narrative.

What projects are you currently working on? What are your near-future plans for photographic production?

I am currently working on several long-term documentary projects as well as a personal project in Guadeloupe.