Earth Vision, 2004-2008

In the group of images entitled Earth Vision, the menacing atmosphere continues, but takes a relatively concrete turn, as though the MacGuffin proffered its identity. Nature and civilization equally provide the seemingly menacing forces - be it in the inhospitableness of cities or the forces of nature. But in reality, it is the light that makes these photographed settings pass into the unreal or surreal. Nature and civilization are also the sources of this light that is sometimes artificial, sometimes natural, and sometimes both at once ; and the photographer’s colour system contibutes to this unsetting atmophere. The fact that individuals well and truly lose themselves in these photographed settings, minute in the middle of the surroundings, reduced to the size of Tom Thumb, further increases the settings’ unreal and threatening nature. What’s more, it is a contrast between the form and the contents. The individual, delivered without protection to the forces of nature and civilization. (...) Historic buildings, streetlamps, industrial site’s lights and the dawn or dusk illuminate the scene of the action in a spectral way. The images’ characters, barely visible, pose as though they are waiting for an imminent accident, without taking any precaution whatsoever to protect themselves, as though the accident were inevitable. These night images, a theme appreciated by photographers since the 1930’s, refer back, inthe first instance to other images; but with their ironic rift, also refer to significant social syndromes (...). Klaus Honnef Art Critic and Curator co-organizer of Kassel dOCUMENTA V and VI extract from « Lucie & Simon, The incertitude of being »