Limen

« All that is visible, clings to the invisible, the audible to the inaudible, the tangible to the intangible: Perhaps the thinkable to the unthinkable. » – The general draft, Novalis

There is an inevitable relationship between the lens and a subject when we use a camera to capture an image, proving its existence. On the other hand, halations, gradations, blurs clash with the purpose of recording. The reason why I am attracted to this aspect of photography is because I can recognize that this information has been recorded by the camera and not by our eye or our memory. New technologies prevent halation and blurring, offering us a clear and sharp image. It is more attractive than the reality that our eyes can capture. Hence, we increasingly depend on the eye of a photographic camera instead of our own eyes and our time of direct observation of the object diminished.

During my research, I collected the fragments which disappeared because of halation, blurring or gradations and tried to restore the information that remained. I extracted these fragments of digital noises and colors that usually get in the way of our gaze. By crafting these repaired fragments and these noises into a patchwork, I realized that what I’d gathered together were lost moments rather than a lost image. Contrary to the custom that expects photos to be “frozen” on paper, I wanted to use shadows, and to freeze the image directly in the mind of visitors. Here, photography isn’t frozen but evanescent and it’s the visitor’s eye that proceeds in the recording. This project offers us the time to rethink our relationship with photography at this time, through the question: What does “to be taken in a photograph” really mean?

Production supports :

Le Fresnoy – National studio of contemporary arts

Métalu A Chahuter