A complete photographic inventory of the cattle breeds recorded in France is the formidable mission Chrystelle Lerisse has set herself to, which she is showcasing in two exhibitions this summer.
The presentation text reads:
The photographer has removed the farm, the milking, the enclosure, and as much as possible, any human form or mark. She frames the animal between ground and cloud, in an open field, which would be natural. Against the here and now of a rural world torn between yield and biodiversity, is she playing out a distant, bucolic or timeless elsewhere? In any case, she operates as if, through the banality of her subject: the cow in the landscape, she were seeking to decline the possible modes of approach to a lost nature, as if she had to record the conditons of catching and losing sight of her motif (of the living, in contrast to her latest series: views of walls and buildings) according to the nature of the animal, the terrain, the light.
Once again offered to the public, Chrystèle Lerisse’s work on cows has been selected by two exhibition curators who are presenting a selection of black and white analog photographs on the subject this summer at:
La Forêt-de-Tessé 16240 at the Logis de Tessé from August 2 to 31, 2025, curated by Luc Arbouin
and Rouze 09460 at La Maison du Patrimoine – Château d’Usson – from July 25 to August 25, 2025, curated by Michel Bompieyre.
The photographs were taken between 2010 and 2014.
The book, “Mission Lerisse – le tour de France des vaches” was published in 2015 by Artboretum Editions in co-publishing with Artzo Editions.
It features 400 photographs and a text by Geneviève Breertte.
Chrystèle Lerisse, visual artist, photographer
www.chrystele-lerisse.com
