Arbor. The Trees Take a Break.
South Acts| N° d'inventaire | 23371 |
| Format | 19 x 21 |
| Détails | 96 p., publisher's hardcover. |
| Publication | Arles, 2016 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782330070595 |
Since the 19th century, trees and photography have maintained a close and fruitful relationship. There is no era or photographic school that has not, to a greater or lesser extent, examined this plant reality in an attempt to capture its diversity, complexity, and richness. For photographers, the tree—and its own genius for capturing light—constitutes much more than an element of the landscape. The proposal of Antoine Herscher, a graphic designer by training, is part of this tradition of vision and, in its own way, renews it. Seeming to take literally the new conception of the tree as an essential link in the Living, the photographer undertakes to draw portraits of it, as he would of human beings. Portraits of trees, therefore, which, as he says mischievously, “have nothing remarkable or exotic in their essence, but which demonstrate character…”. Solitary or gregarious, urban or rural, exploited or rebellious, Antoine Herscher's trees, groves and forests are endowed with a true personality. Captured in square format in a subtle range of black and white, these visions, by turns poetic, bucolic or meditative – dotted here and there with facetious pareidolia – draw us into a form of perceptive wandering where we walk with surprise and playfulness… We then hear the echo of Malcolm de Chazal's words, reported by the philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Curnier in the remarkable preface that opens the book: “One day, on a very pure afternoon, I was walking when, facing a grove of azaleas, I saw for the first time an azalea flower looking at me.”
Since the 19th century, trees and photography have maintained a close and fruitful relationship. There is no era or photographic school that has not, to a greater or lesser extent, examined this plant reality in an attempt to capture its diversity, complexity, and richness. For photographers, the tree—and its own genius for capturing light—constitutes much more than an element of the landscape. The proposal of Antoine Herscher, a graphic designer by training, is part of this tradition of vision and, in its own way, renews it. Seeming to take literally the new conception of the tree as an essential link in the Living, the photographer undertakes to draw portraits of it, as he would of human beings. Portraits of trees, therefore, which, as he says mischievously, “have nothing remarkable or exotic in their essence, but which demonstrate character…”. Solitary or gregarious, urban or rural, exploited or rebellious, Antoine Herscher's trees, groves and forests are endowed with a true personality. Captured in square format in a subtle range of black and white, these visions, by turns poetic, bucolic or meditative – dotted here and there with facetious pareidolia – draw us into a form of perceptive wandering where we walk with surprise and playfulness… We then hear the echo of Malcolm de Chazal's words, reported by the philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Curnier in the remarkable preface that opens the book: “One day, on a very pure afternoon, I was walking when, facing a grove of azaleas, I saw for the first time an azalea flower looking at me.”