It's about processing': the artist who spent three months recreating the most poignant moments with her ex

"Each intimate image from the series, taken over three months, is a replica of an exact moment once shared with her ex and now shared between her and the actor. Her connection to him deliberately led to his being cast as her partner in the series so that the experience would feel as real as possible. Diana Markosian looking at the actor standing on the balcony of a hotel in Capri. Photograph: Diana Markosian"

"With the actor, she visited Miami, Paris, Naples, Capri and Nice, all places she had once traveled to with her ex-partner. These locations carry an existing weight of romantic myth, she says. They are already shaped by cultural narratives of love, desire and idealized experience. She stayed at the same hotels and did the activities they had once done together, describing the experience as painful but cathartic."

"[The moments] no longer existed in the way they had, and I wanted to reclaim them, she says. I wanted to feel that I could exist in my own story again. To document their relationship, Markosian and her team worked with an actor to play her ex-partner."

"It hurts so much, watching myself be replaced, watching those memories erased, and I didn't want to live in this any more, she says. I'm so grateful that the project happened quickly. One of the most tender moments she recreates with the model appears in an image of them seated in a bathtub, holding one another with a red light glowing around them."

Falling in and out of love often brings sadness, grief, and heartbreak, followed by hope and healing. Diana Markosian created Replaced to document having, losing, and reclaiming love through a blend of documentary and fiction. She worked with an actor to play her ex-partner, replicating exact moments from her past relationship and sharing them again between herself and the actor. The project used the same travel destinations and activities, including Miami, Paris, Naples, Capri, and Nice, staying in the same hotels. Recreating these scenes was painful but cathartic, helping her feel she could exist again in her own story. Tender, vulnerable images invite viewers to reflect on their own experiences of love.

Read at www.theguardian.com