Nicolas Baghir Maslowski was born in France in 1974.He chose Baghir for his artist name from the given name of his Russian grandfather who died in 1917. His photographs are in the pictorialist tradition started at the end of the nineteenth century (Robert Demachy, Alvin Coburn, Edward Steichen). The pictorialists aimed to put forward their own vision of the subject and to transform reality with the help of a variety of processes such as soft-focus or chiaroscuro effects or even sophisticated printing techniques. Their ambition was to break with the industrial vision of photography in favour of the artistic sensitivities of the photographer. It was Albert Steiglitz (1864-1946) who asserted himself as the movement’s leader, pushing this style of photography through his magazine Camera Works and organising the first museum exhibitions in New York.
Baghir’s new series, entitled Variations 2.18, is a continuation of his work: for several years, he has explored the possibilities of 35mm film, playing with filters he designed himself, pursuing particular exposure and lighting conditions. Yet, his creative approach changed, he stopped using just black and white, the solitary tree on the plain and the skylines to plunge into the depths of the forest. Baghir looked at the natural forms that interested him by focussing on the “supernatural colours that they projected onto the retina of the eye”. When he went back to black and white, he played with the grain of the image and shades of grey, but the light played the primary role in this new series. Baghir gives us his personal vision, but faithful to his approach he lets the viewer decrypt the image and create the story around it. “At the same time that I left the solitary trees behind to penetrate the forest”, he explains, “the Variations 2.18 put an end to the cycle of only black and white … The approach was binary, digital. Primary too. Pure like the silence of a child’s game. To Open one eyes wide at coloured light, then close them tight for a long time, and look for the supernatural colours of unseen shapes on the retina.”
Baghir, Variations 2.18
From 26th January to 11th March 2018
Photo12 Galerie
14 rue des Jardins Saint-Paul
75004 Paris
France
