They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. It is however impossible for me to offer these images whose dates oscillate between 1970 and today, without breaking the silence. I made a selection that is neither chronological nor imposed by the subject. Only the emotional, the aesthetic and the little “je ne sais quoi” guided a choice. Partisan of film, all my images are made with black and white films and have not been retouched. I only photograph what I like to see, often under the stimulus generated by childhood memories.
The characters I chose to shoot from behind are only the relay of my own eyes; my nudes are only the disguise of my desires; my still lifes are the metaphor of my passion for the things created by anonymous people who, without knowing it, touched the essential by designing these objects whose experience reassures me. Landscapes, finally, are only the result of the symbiosis between memories and fortuitous appearances at the turn of a hill or a path. During these last ten years, I never stopped to track down the origin of my photographic acts in order to understand their meaning and to allow me to advance. I looked for another form of photography in the recesses of my mind, while I had finally already found mine.
The magnetism exerted on me by my obsessions and my deep nature is the winner of this conflict between fantasy and reality; so I dig to find the potential underlay, eternal reason to live.
Christian Coigny
Christian Coigny - Photographies
From September 13 to November 15, 2018
Auer Ory Foundation for Photography
10 rue du Couchant
CH-1248 Hermance
http://www.auerphoto.com
