Ronan Guillou — Angel — NextLevel Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 9 → December 23, 2010

NextLevel Galerie is pleased to present a new photographic series by Ronan Guillou, taken from his work on the United States (2002-2010), which has also been chosen in the occasion of the Mois de la Photo-OFF in Paris.

An odyssey that leads the viewer through American urban spaces, Ronan Guillou’s work tackles the theme of the temporary emptiness in spaces, the state of transition and expectation. In a silent and contemplative atmosphere, the photographed subjects exist in an autonomous way thanks to the orchestrated creation of aesthetic or chromatic coincidences.

Birthplace of illusions for some, a land of accomplishment for others, a clay-footed giant whose torn and tattered image can be immediately rehabilitated through a simple political event, the United States, from Ronan Guillou’s point of view, remains a permanent question mark tangled in contradictory visions. Initially in an unconscious way, it is the desire to experience the myth that inhabits him at the same time as the urge to play a role in what was up until then a land of fiction. In search of adventure in the purely romantic sense of the term, he experiments with symbols, probes the myth, gets physically involved in order to try to figure out the mysterious fascination for this country and its rich iconographic tradition, to which numerous European authors have contributed. If his photographs suggest a poetic vision of the ordinary and call upon the imagination of each and every one of us, they also question us on the temporality [material matter] of places, reveal their nearly organic power as well as their fragility, and examine man’s relationship with the constructed universe.

The use of a medium-sized format allows the artist to give priority to immediate contact with his subject while remaining in touch with the elements outside of the frame. Color is also at the heart of the production process as the decisive material of the formal approach; if in fact it makes it possible to reveal the geometrical force of spaces and the poetic dimension of certain scenes, it tends to pay tribute to traditional American iconography as well. The entirety of Ronan’s work is produced on negative film and no retouching is carried out on the originals, leaving the photographer’s point of view intact and without distortion.