“Take your time, calm down, observe…
Take the time to lie down and dream, take your time to use slow photography, take your time to move outside of time.
This work, as well as other ambrotype series I’ve made, is a multilevel paradox.
Here are images of dreamers and nature… nothing new, nothing sensational, just an intimate view of individuals in their solitude – Both this old, slow process and the subjects are in opposition to a fast-moving and easily bored world – A few glass plates against a huge continuous flow of images – Pictures on a noble material to be held in the hands for more than a second – Instant photography versus long poses – Organic versus abstract
All this is in contrast to the modern era, and shows us how far we have gone, how excessive our lives can be.
What if classic, romantic and bucolic images became sensational and rare?
If this process is not an end in itself, the user can still take an almost political stance, by refusing the speed of life as we know it today.
Not only do I enjoy observing the depth in a model’s eyes, getting deep inside to focus on her immobility, I also see a sort of therapeutic method in this process, for the model, and for the photographer.
The day I moved out of the city to change my life, I naturally started to use wet plate collodion more and more and to photograph simple life, still or not. This way of thinking about photography fits with a certain pace of life. Its artifacts and randomness illustrate an unequal, calm, and lyrical environment.”
My name is Eric Antoine, I was born in 1974 and I live in Hangebieten-France.
