FRENCH ART PHOTOGRAPHER - Marie-Pierre and the time of simple joys...

Zone de Texte: II

Zone de Texte: III

Zone de Texte: “Keeping an open eye on the invisible” Léon Denis ABSTRACTIONS Weston considered that ‘art for art’s sake is a failure”, conversely, discovering and handing over the keys that unlock the path to ‘imaginary voyages” surely constitutes apotheosis for an artist, especially for the plastics artist who thus molds his art, (these ‘mute things” which so concerned Stendhal), into speaking visual arts, further fueling the as secular as impassioned debate of ‘Ut Pictura Poesis”. A combination of true values, ‘Visual Arts - Poetry” may however not undergo any outrageous transformation, be it scientific, technical or subjective, at the risk of seeing it disappear under the manipulator’s hand: one should take Siskind’s advice and be ‘as passive as possible”. “A poet must see things such as they are and must then show them to others in such a way that without him, they would not be able to see them” Pierre Reverdy Thus, all these images that you are about to discover are unprecedented as they have randomly fallen upon my astonished eye, fashioned solely by nature’s elements. They are also original, often fleeting and born instantly before my camera lens, this lens which has now become an outgrowth and an accomplice to my eye, this eye desperately seeking what is invisible or that which is different. My camera is also the essential and perfect tool to capture, record and as faithfully as possible relay these images - communicating to us as many messages that hold the secret keys allowing access to Imaginary Voyages to which Dante refers in his ‘Divine comedy” or even Christine de Pizan in ‘Le livre du chemin de longue estude”. Christian Heck also has made an elegant case for Imaginary Voyages, as already described in the Middle Ages and appearing under the image of ‘The celestial scale”. Like as many witnesses to its existence, my images’ purpose is to restore ‘the seventh face of the die” which Josef Sudek discusses in this great creator’s yet little known, unsigned and undedicated key work on the path to dreams and for which it can be justly said as Ernest Haas would have it: ‘Its colors express themselves and inherently give rise to emotions”. However, in keeping with Moholy’s concept of True Photography, I have neither tried to influence or to disturb the images so as to preserve the purity of the daydream into which the observer is drawn. I therefore refuse to attribute either figurative or suggestive titles to my images, by the same token refusing to direct the observer’s attention in any way. Only classification references may appear in coded language, devoid of any imaginary meaning. “To suggest is to create, to describe is to destroy” Robert Doisneau

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