Collection: "Natures", by Jean-Luc Chapin

"This is how the landscape is born. In the inactinic darkness of the laboratory, the photographer makes indecipherable gestures under the black mass of the enlarger. He sprinkles light, forces the shadows and the lines. The image has not been given, it is taken. He tears from the inert matter forms that begin to dance, that burst with all their strength, that give up the ghost. The photographer's real work is accomplished in these nocturnal and solitary moments, in these silent incantations around the trays, in these formulas that accompany each print, scribbled in the margins. To draw on the contrasts, to work on a detail by passing the hands under the shower of light, to spread seconds, to pass the sun through a sieve, on a detail of the frame to make the shadow spring forth in a corner, to mask, to hold. Each print is a unique moment. To fight, to find the ideal gesture. What he finds sweet, I find sad, what what he finds dense I see opaque, what I feel light he considers thick, what seems airy to me dissolves weakly for him, the subtlety of his gaze responds to the naivety of mine. It takes hours to make the image give up its soul, for the tiny sparkle on the foliage to appear, for the reflection of an eddy to suddenly shine with a disturbing tenderness, for the branch to become liquid in the liquid sky. Tirelessly, he spreads the pinches of light, caresses time, passes his hands in the column of light to hold back a veil of shadow. The image comes, the image is there. "

Jean-Luc Chapin

Based on the book natures , photographs by Jean-Luc Chapin, texts by Jean-Marie Laclavetine, preface by Muriel Barbery.

Silver prints by the artist made on ilford warmtone paper 255g/m 2 . All photographs are for sale in the formats 30x40 cm, 50x60cm and 120x120 cm, sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Each format is printed in three numbered copies.