See differently Still today, for a great majority of us, photography is inevitably synonymous with quite identifiable image, representing clearly and perfectly the object in its reality.The word photography indicates in fact 3 distinct things between which we do not inevitably make a difference.
- Photography : practical current : the goal is to obtain an image memory, as aesthetic as possible.
- Photography : object which one can hold or put within a framework.
- Photography : physicochemical technical process which makes it possible to record «the things» by the action of the light.
The photographers and the amateurs of photography established various technical and aesthetic criteria. But does photography have obligatorily to answer these criteria? Can't it be regarded simply as an additional technique availability of artistic creation?
For my part, I claim myself photographer simply because I use «the photographic technique».
All other consideration being placed at the second plan
Photograph - Private collection
Photography ? ...To photograph to reproduce accurately what surrounds me hardly interests me. I prefer to try to create other worlds, facts of particular environments. Worlds where often reality such as one is accustomed to perceive it is not directly identifiable, but where each one has freedom to see what he desires to see.
So my step moves away clearly from the purely figurative representation.
A little as a sculptor chooses a block of stone for then creating his sculpture, my catches of sights are only used to obtain negative black and white which I regard as a simple raw material. With this stage, my preoccupation with esthetism is limited. It is only then, in the laboratory, that I use this raw material to create the image I wish to have.
The techniques which I use to reach that point are various, and generally photographic. But not always... These techniques, generally well established, I often modify them so that they «stick» to the desired results: reports/ratios of enlarging raised, realignment, play of contrasts, total or selective toning, work with the brush, inks, scissors, joining, transfer on film color, laser photocopy, etc...
I would be tempted to say that I do not make real photography, but that I rather use it.
