honorable mention
Jacques Garnnier united states
title
Hymns to the Silence
Garnier's award winning work has been shown in museums, academic institutions, and galleries in the United States, Europe and China and is in the permanent collection of many museums including LACMA and has been featured at the Smithsonian.
Born in Los Angeles with a Master’s in French Literature from UC Santa Barbara Garnier’ circuitous road led him into the photographic world some 20 years ago. Since then he has developed many projects and books including: The Legacy Project - a 15 year documentation of the El Toro Marine base which includes the making of the World’s Largest Photograph, Second Chances - a five year exploration of the disappearing landscapes and man’s relationship to the environment in the Mojave desert, Revival – a visual observation on man’s struggles to live with nature, A Deconstructed Odyssey – an investigation into the politics of space by eliminating the clutter from building facades and most recently Hymns to the Silence – poetic architectural abstractions meant to still the chaos and foster a ‘new way of seeing.’
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entry description
Grace in isolation. This is the central theme of Jacques Garnier’s Hymns to the Silence. The motivating factor is to create space around an object (isolated architectural elements) so it can breathe and be appreciated it for what it is without any distractions. These minimal, abstracted b&w photographs dwell in the zone between report and fabrication. “I try to create the poem from the evidence,” said playwright Arthur Miller. Garnier’s photographs capture modernist buildings with detail and fidelity, but at the same moment are crafted, poetic fictions. They directly record but are vastly recast. Consequently, they strike an attentive viewer simultaneously as remembrance and as revelation. By peeling away the layers, he has increasingly decided that art should not deliver a report on reality but instead look at what is behind reality. The artist seeks to transcend the subject, essentially make subject matter irrelevant. These are reductive works, images that remove the superfluous and in so doing forces the viewer to look inward, past the clutter of our normal world which distracts us, while allowing him to focus on the calmness or stillness that tends to evade us. What remains, finally, is awareness itself, a consciousness of visual perception itself which intensifies all desire for contemplation. The negative space of these deconstructed images is the pause between the notes of the music, a disruption, to make you create your own interpretation and to enjoy the silence. This emptiness allows for potential. This is an emotional quest, a spiritual journey. Perhaps Lau Tzu said it best some 2,700 years ago: “Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.”about the photographer
Photography, as with most arts, is the exploration of a vision, an interpretation of what is seen or perhaps even unseen. Over the last few years my work has been laser focused on eliminating the distractions and the chatter which restrict our efforts to find the deeper meaning in our lives. These photographs utilize a strong graphic element with liberal use of negative space to eliminate the clutter enabling us to see more clearly what is before us. Once the superfluous has been removed, what is left is more open to contemplation - a meditation freed from some of the chaos that surrounds us.Garnier's award winning work has been shown in museums, academic institutions, and galleries in the United States, Europe and China and is in the permanent collection of many museums including LACMA and has been featured at the Smithsonian.
Born in Los Angeles with a Master’s in French Literature from UC Santa Barbara Garnier’ circuitous road led him into the photographic world some 20 years ago. Since then he has developed many projects and books including: The Legacy Project - a 15 year documentation of the El Toro Marine base which includes the making of the World’s Largest Photograph, Second Chances - a five year exploration of the disappearing landscapes and man’s relationship to the environment in the Mojave desert, Revival – a visual observation on man’s struggles to live with nature, A Deconstructed Odyssey – an investigation into the politics of space by eliminating the clutter from building facades and most recently Hymns to the Silence – poetic architectural abstractions meant to still the chaos and foster a ‘new way of seeing.’
back to gallery