Interview
How was the Listening to Architecture project born?I’m
interested in space as a whole, and particularly in today’s multifarious
relations between “space and time” and “nature and humans”. This work
offers a possible answer to the question of the relationship between
architecture and human.
You have photographed the works of Le Corbusier and Peter Zumthor: what were your criteria in selecting these architectures?Among
the many architectural works I visited, I chose those offering the
richest spatial experience. These architectures also share a poetic side
beyond their functional character.
Another parameter is my taste for
old objects, which I collect. I particularly like things that have been
around for a long time and are designed to last. These objects often
exude formal, material, aesthetic and conceptual power.
Your
photographs often feature a kind of echo, as if the location was
breathing in the image. Do you decide upon the image on the spot, when
shooting, or do you conceptualize it beforehand? Do you already know you
are going to stop on Scarpa’s single staircase, or the grass around
Peter Zumthor, or is this revealed by your wanderings?Before I
visit architecture, I research the concept. When shooting, there are
plenty of aspects that come into play and influence me, like the
specific conditions of time and space at a given moment, the positioning
of the body, the knowledge you have of the object, the history of
photography, technique and so on. Every time, all of these elements are
reflected in my work. I try as much as possible to immerse myself into
the moment’s uniqueness, the element of chance, and I only shoot once I
know I can capture the unexpected.
This also means that there are a
number of photographs in Listening to Architecture where no architecture
is to be seen, but I think they actually illustrate situations created
by the architecture.
You use black and white, sometimes
pushing the whites to dazzling extremes and blurring the lines. What
does the absence of detail reveal? How do you approach the light when
working with the substance of architecture?We see reality
through different filters; knowledge and photography are not always the
most appropriate media to objectively represent reality. In my work, I
am not trying to offer an explicit description of architecture, but
exploring the different relationship modes between space and humans.
This is why I have chosen black & white negative film to abstract
architecture and represent it as a space that appears based on how you
experience it.
Limited edition, numbered and signed.
Selected shows and awards
Tokyo Design Week, Tokyo, 2015
Listening To Architecture, Raum1f, Tokyo, 2013
Cerebral Garden, Paris, 2013
Listening To Architecture, Galerie Catherine&Andre Hug, Paris, 2012
Seoul International Photography Festival, Seoul, 2009
My Forest In Your Forest, Les Salaisons, Romainville, 2008
One Forest, Galerie Catherine&Andre Hug, Paris, 2007
Knot, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo, 2006
Matrix Of The Contemporary Photography, Site-Graphics, Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, 2005
Art Paris, Paris, 2005
Fiac, Paris, 2005
Group Exhibition, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo, 2005
Art Paris, Paris, 2004
Jeune Creation, Grande Halle De La Villette, Paris, 2004
Festival Voies Off (Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie à Arles), Arles, 2003
Drawing Constellations, Gallery Light Works, Yokohama, 2002
Canon New Cosmos Of Photography 2001, Galley Raku, Kyoto, 2001
Canon New Cosmos Of Photography 2000, Aoyama Moda-Politica, Tokyo, 2000