“Entre chien et loup” twilight is this special and sudden moment of the day just before night, where you can’t distinguish a dog from a wolf. Things start to melt together, different worlds to step on each other. The familiar takes an unknown face and the limit between domestic and wild, comfort and fear gets unclear.
“Photographer Maxime Ballesteros has ‘provocative’ attached to his name. He captures the most intense and beautiful aspects of life – the climax of a party, sex and a fair amount of high heels and leather – in bright colours illuminated by a sharp, uncompromising flash. Originally from a small village near Lyon, Ballesteros now lives in Berlin, which he describes as “dangerous in the best way, in its freedom”. He photographs Berlin’s nightlife and his friends, though his pictures are only loosely connected to specific places and times. Playing with sexually-charged symbolism – leather, stockings, heels – his photos evoke debauched Renaissance paintings and early photographs of the decadent 20s and 80s. Creation and destruction, love and innocence, excess and debauchery – aspects fundamental to human nature – are all ever-present themes in his work. Whatever his subject is, he manages to capture reality at its best, the perfect moment one wants to preserve forever. Ballesteros’ photographs are strong and honest statements sprinkled with only a contrasting hint of irony. “ – Anastasiia Fedorova
Online exhibition: http://www.hauserandhauser.com/artists/maxime-ballesteros/exhibition/12/index.php
http://www.maximeballesteros.com
