LUC DELAHAYE
2014-12-29With these photographs, Luc Delahaye continues to reflect on the representations of the human condition in the contemporary world. With freedom and precision, he carries forward his pursuit of images that declare their autonomy while transcending their photographic nature. This quest is above all the restless wandering of someone who, through his impersonal presence, aspires to an awareness of the world.
Starting from theaters of war, it takes him towards a more ordinary reality: that of an Indian village, of a suburb of Athens or of a financial institution. It also prompts him to broaden his modus operandi: whereas the documentary approach remains central to his work, he is now also integrating certain artifices usually linked to fiction. Thus, of the four photographs taken in the Indian village, two are classic documentary images taken directly from real life (Coal Gleaner, The Tree), another is the re-enactment of a scene witnessed during a previous visit (Father and Daughter), and the last (Boys Fighting) is the creation of an imaginary situation, using “actors”. Another example, in a very different domain, Trading Floor is a digital composition made from pictures taken at the London Metal Exchange. Death of a Mercenary and House to House, both made in Libya during the 2011 war, are more in the line of Luc Delahaye’s earlier works.
Opposite – House to House (Tawargha), 2011
Exhibition runs through till January 17th, 2015
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
3 rue du Cloître Saint-Merri
75004 Paris
France
