honorable mention
Francois Gagne canada
title
Abstract Beauty 2
Photography to me is a tool rather than a goal. The images I create might not correspond to academic or technical photographic standards; to me, a picture isn’t a picture, but an image created through photographical means, which could result in something closer to an etching, a drawing or a painting than a photograph.
What counts is what I can see and how I can express it with a simple, common, easy-to-carry and user friendly tool such as a cell phone camera and its basic functions.
I am not interested in technical prowesses, mimetic reproductions of reality or fictive stories. I am interested in finding and expressing the extraordinary nature, the dual or multiple layers of meaning, the hidden beauty and the fragility of the ordinary, the banal and the neglected fragments or elements of our immediate surroundings, the given material world we’ve inherited and often ignore, or ruin.
Abstract shapes and patterns, legendary or mythical creatures, imaginary landscapes, potential destruction, traces, and vanishing of things found in the real, concrete environment in which we live on a day-to-day basis, without really seeing or looking at it, motivate and direct my work.
I aim to create images that are eye-catcher, attractive to the viewer at first glance, but also intriguing, moving, and capable to produce something close to thinking, consciousness, love, and action.
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entry description
Some specific elements of nature in my immediate surroundings attract my attention for their shapes, textures or colors. I see them as paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, serigraphs, and do not intend to represent them in a documentary, realistic, technically perfect fashion. I think my work isn't a photographic work per se, it only uses basic photographic devices and cell phone settings to create images that represent how I see the inner beauty of the outside world.about the photographer
Trained as an architect and an urban designer, I now dedicate my career full time to visual arts.Photography to me is a tool rather than a goal. The images I create might not correspond to academic or technical photographic standards; to me, a picture isn’t a picture, but an image created through photographical means, which could result in something closer to an etching, a drawing or a painting than a photograph.
What counts is what I can see and how I can express it with a simple, common, easy-to-carry and user friendly tool such as a cell phone camera and its basic functions.
I am not interested in technical prowesses, mimetic reproductions of reality or fictive stories. I am interested in finding and expressing the extraordinary nature, the dual or multiple layers of meaning, the hidden beauty and the fragility of the ordinary, the banal and the neglected fragments or elements of our immediate surroundings, the given material world we’ve inherited and often ignore, or ruin.
Abstract shapes and patterns, legendary or mythical creatures, imaginary landscapes, potential destruction, traces, and vanishing of things found in the real, concrete environment in which we live on a day-to-day basis, without really seeing or looking at it, motivate and direct my work.
I aim to create images that are eye-catcher, attractive to the viewer at first glance, but also intriguing, moving, and capable to produce something close to thinking, consciousness, love, and action.
back to gallery