Five artists, five photographers, five visions of mankind are on display at the Galerie Sophie Scheidecker’s exhibition Caractères, from May 3 to July 13. Viewers are invited to discover a reality reexamined through the lenses of Suzanne Lafont, Yasumassa Morimura, Cindy Sherman and Sam Taylor-Wood.
Allegory in contemporary photography is rooted in the collective imagination, with the use of the grotesque and disguise an integral part. Yasumassa Morimura’s work revisits the masterpieces of art history. She takes on the role of Goya’s Duchess of Alba in the same way that Cindy Sherman transforms herself into a thousand different faces. The notion of time no longer exists in her photographs. The past, present and future merge into a caricature of human reality. Photography is governed by a choreographic, figurative process, sublimated even in an allegory of daily life. Personification does not exist; photography takes us back to a broader social identity. An observer of the world, Lina Bertucci depicts the world of young New Yorkers who take their fashion cues from vampires. Sam-Taylor Wood in her series Crying Men brings us consciousness and Suzanne Lafont focuses on expressions. For her, a face is “a contradictory and ambigous place between attitude and being,” as her series Grimaces shows. Through their lenses, these photographers offer a critical portrait of modern society by giving pride of place to morality, satire, humor and, not the least, passion.
EXHIBITION
Caractères
Galerie Sophie Scheidecker
May 3 to July 13, 2012
14 bis rue des Minimes
75003 Paris
France
From Tuesday to Saturday 11 am to 7 pm. Close on Monday.
