Christinat's artwork builds upon the examination of truth in the medium of photography, which I have been researching recently.He is a native of Switzerland, yet was born in France in 1963, and studied photography at the School of the Arts in Lausanne from 1980-1984. He has shifted between various styles, he has an extensive body of female nudes with neutral backgrounds, but I find his staged group scenes the most enigmatic and fascinating. His series Evenements, which was created between 1999 to 2002, depict groups of men and women, all dressed in dark suits and dresses and posed in such a way to recall famous political photographs. One of the images shows a group of six women gathered around the body of man laid out on a table. This tableaux is based upon a photograph of a Spanish family's wake during the Francisco Franco regime taken by W.Eugene Smith. It is fascinating to look at all of the various gestures displayed by the models in his images. Once he takes the figures from these politically charged photographs and removes them from their context, the interest level soars. The uniformity of their costuming is juxtaposed with the individuality in their gestures.
I first became aware of Olivier Christinat while my current series was still in its gestation period, one year ago. I was immediately drawn to the positioning of his figures and intrigued by the limited color palette he employs. The facial expressions are an integral part of the photographs, and I intend to incorporate more faces into my series.
http://expositions.bnf.fr/face/rencon/chris/index.htm
http://www.pascalpolar.be/repartistes/christinat/christinat.html
www.gdvs.com
No comments:
Post a Comment