Artist Statement
To describe my photography, I would say "Documentary Photography", to anchor it in whatever photographic tradition or heritage. I am interested in places, spaces, and territories. I believe that showing where people live, work or develop their activities can teach us as much about the inhabitants as showing them. ? I am also interested in visual emptiness, and in visual banality, like in some suburban areas. Trying to capture some essence from nothing...Maybe am I simply documenting absurdity.
Process Statement
I most frequently use analog processes, Tri-X with Contax Cameras, and for specific projects like the on I completed in Tokyo a 6X6 Rolleiflex
I was born in 1963 in France. Born to photography 20 years later, after discovering Alexander Rodtchenko’s low angle shots. Photography becomes a regular activity after a first series of jazz concerts, jazz music remains ever since a constant source of inspiration, inseparable from picture taking.
In the early 90ies, Lee Friedlander, met during a workshop at Arles Photo Festival encourages me to keep on working on my “strange pictures”, while French photographer Arnaud Claass teaches me about visual rigor and introduces me to the work of Walker Evans, another aesthetical reference for my photography. As of 1993 I begin a series on the Paris St-Germain Football club’s fans, the anonymous passerby’s in big cities such as Paris and New York, and a series of landscapes in urban no-man’s lands.
From this period onwards I started photographing street scenes, in particular in Prague, in Hungary and then in Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong-Kong).
From 2002 to 2007, a professional expatriation in China allows me the opportunity to begin a documentary work, first in black and white, then in colour, about Shanghai’s popular and industrial neighbourhoods bound for demolition. This project was exhibited in China and I published a book, Shanghai in JPG, with the support of Gallery Owner and Curator Jean Loh.
In 2009 I started two documentary projects: One around the outskirts of Paris called "in their eyes...emptiness". The second one in China, in second-tier cities (Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan), that I am planning to close in 2013.
I am currently living in Shanghai, where I am developing a new documentary project 'Minhang - District", in parallel to street shooting.
> May 2007 “Vis-a-Vis International” (on-line review) with 6 images from Shanghai in.JPG and award of the month
> In March 2008 publication of the book Shanghai in JPG (Beaugeste Design edition)
> Collective exhibition " Shanghai Without the Oriental Pearl Tower" at the Epsite Gallery in Shanghai - Moganshan Lu
> January 2009: portfolio of 18 pictures with text published in the French journal ‘Monde Chinois” which is the reference for China questions in France
> February 2009: Bookstore "Le phoenix' in Paris (specialized in publications related to Asia)
> Selections of "Shanghai in .JPG" and from "China - other cities" are on display on "SocialDocumentary.net' or on other photo web-blogs like “clickblog”
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