Sabine Mirlesse, “L & V” (2012) from the series “Preventricular Arrythmia”
I started this series after a breakup, in 2010. At the time, I was so overwhelmed with the subject of happy and unhappy couples, and what that meant, that I decided to just give in to it. I began shooting in New York, and then Paris, often using the too-small apartments young couples find themselves sharing as a player in the scenario. The series developed from there, and it took the title of the diagnosis a cardiologist gave me for a heart condition, very common among young women in their twenties, in which you have extra heartbeats. As for what I’ve learned: in retrospect, whether or not a couple is still together perhaps matters less than the fact that at the time the picture was taken, there was love in the room.