Festive, sensual, haunted, sometimes – and even if the evening seems over – Christophe Maradan‘s nocturnal photographs become the fruit of a troubled memory of misty atmospheres that we do not remember well. From night to the dark room there is only one step. It allows the artist to photograph in black and white, and with film. “It’s not a question of aesthetics or quality, let alone a claim. That’s what I like to do.” writes Maradan.
Photography is for the Swiss artist a question of composition, light, emotions, and also a question of time. Quick to shoot but slower afterwards. Because selecting the right picture is not enough. You have to give it its “color” even with the black and white. Only the photographic print allows the completion of the work. Through it a vision is created, an interpretation where the still eroticized night stirs.
This slow process remains a deepening. And the images – taken with wet Collodion on glass, 4×5 inches and then printed in large format – do not seek to mimic reality between sublimation and trash. Within atmospheres more black than white and by approaching those he captures, the artist creates a paradoxical distance because nothing is given instantly. It is up to the onlooker to find the right distance to develop his interpretation faculties.
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret
