On-Nature, Benjamin Deroche.
Watermarks Editions| N° d'inventaire | 26508 |
| Format | 20.5 x 25.5 |
| Détails | 88 p., color illustrations, publisher's hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2023 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782350465937 |
“This book retraces ten years of nature photography. The starting point was a very high tide in North Finistère, in the winter of 2012. This mixture of desert sand and water at low tide gave me the desire to plant a tree and photograph it. Symbolically, I then began to work with paper sculptures installed far out on the foreshore. I had to work between two tides and I often lost the work before even photographing it; it was a game of patience.
Photographing nature is, for me, a space of liberation. I am certainly connected to my subject, but I am also a little out of touch with myself. In the heart of a forest or on the edge of a lake, there is no perfection or imperfection, everything is already there and I am in a way without object, hence this need for non-otherness. There is a kind of dilution of oneself with nature and we can indeed speak of communion.
I like simple shapes or materials to deconstruct, like crumpled paper. They are both aesthetic symbols and objects that are there to pay homage to the place. I artificialize the natural space a little, I perhaps also humanize it, even if that is not my initial intention. What matters most is the discovery of the place, and sometimes, as Hubert Reeves writes, the space takes the form of my gaze.
Benjamin Deroche
“This book retraces ten years of nature photography. The starting point was a very high tide in North Finistère, in the winter of 2012. This mixture of desert sand and water at low tide gave me the desire to plant a tree and photograph it. Symbolically, I then began to work with paper sculptures installed far out on the foreshore. I had to work between two tides and I often lost the work before even photographing it; it was a game of patience.
Photographing nature is, for me, a space of liberation. I am certainly connected to my subject, but I am also a little out of touch with myself. In the heart of a forest or on the edge of a lake, there is no perfection or imperfection, everything is already there and I am in a way without object, hence this need for non-otherness. There is a kind of dilution of oneself with nature and we can indeed speak of communion.
I like simple shapes or materials to deconstruct, like crumpled paper. They are both aesthetic symbols and objects that are there to pay homage to the place. I artificialize the natural space a little, I perhaps also humanize it, even if that is not my initial intention. What matters most is the discovery of the place, and sometimes, as Hubert Reeves writes, the space takes the form of my gaze.
Benjamin Deroche