Intimate Terms: Manuel Obadia Wills on Image, Intimacy and Control

Photographer Manuel Obadia-Wills presents Intimate Terms, a long-term project he has been developing over the past few years. His artistic process emerged from an ongoing reflection on the tension between image, intimacy and control in an era where self-representation and identity construction are increasingly entangled.

Our worlds — our contemporary realities — have indeed been shaped by this constant, unending stream of images: circulated by brands, artists, and above all by the social networks that document, scrutinize, and evaluate our every move. To exist today is to be seen. The act of constructing one’s public image has become a daily tyranny — a continual effort to shape ourselves according to who we wish to be, and how we hope to be appreciated and recognized. 

These are some of the questions the artist explores through a process involving a hunting camera. By handing over this discreet, motion-triggered device to the participant, the artist — both photographer and filmmaker — redefines the relationship between author and subject. The person being filmed or photographed becomes the one who decides what to show and when, reclaiming control over their own image, while the artist steps back from the traditional position of authority. It is the camera — not the photographer or director — that enters the intimate space: alone, silent and unobtrusive. This gesture of shared authorship forms a foundation of trust and reappropriation, where consent remains essential and ever-present.

For Tide, Manuel Obadia-Wills unveils an excerpt of his work, centering on emblematic figures of the Parisian night scene. Three Night Owls whose very worlds resonate with questions of desire and safety: DJ and artist Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, techno DJ and producer François X, and Alexandra-Rose, founder of the Parisian libertine soirées Maisons Pourpres. Each, in their own way, explores and redefines their own spaces of freedom and intimacy. Night, and by extension, parties, is a central concept to the experimental Intimate Terms. How can desire run free, and the body liberate itself from expectations, if photographs can leak at any moment? 

Safety is also essential to the unfolding of desire — on the dance floor, within queer communities, or in spaces of sexual freedom that remain exclusive to ensure protection. Yet a paradox runs through this series: while participants try to let go — allowing the camera to enter moments of intimacy, in bed, at home or on stage — they often end up, consciously or not, reclaiming control over their image, through a new form of self-curation. Such was the case with Claude-Emmanuelle, an artist herself, who disliked her first take and insisted on redoing it.

This tension gives depth to the project, showing how easily spontaneity can turn into performance, and how authenticity grows increasingly fragile in our digital age. Intimate Terms develops within a broader social and political context. Through tensions between power and vulnerability, control and surrender, exposure and concealment, the photographer questions his role in today’s image-saturated world, seeking a more ethical gaze — one grounded on dialogue and trust, rather than possession.

At its core, the project also affirms empathy — not only as a necessity, but as a foundational concept. In a fragmented and often dehumanizing world, Intimate Terms offers a space where empathy becomes both method and message, reminding us of its crucial role in how we relate, represent, and care for one another.