This exhibition accompanies the publication of a book comprising a hundred and thirty photographs and texts, presenting work by Christophe Taylor accumulated in China over a period of more than thirty years.
Christopher Taylor uses medium and large format film cameras, making his own silver bromide prints in the darkroom. He has travelled the length and breadth of this vast country over the course of some fifteen visits, at first unfamiliar with its customs and culture, then gradually learning from personal experience and friendships forged along the way.
I often try to avoid the anonymity of big Chinese cities, preferring small towns on a more human scale from where the countryside is more easily accessible. In such places, the traditional values that interest me survive more readily in unvarnished form. The simplicity of my antiquated analogue camera seems an appropriate tool to pick out forms or scenes through which I attempt to imply hidden meaning, in line with my chain of thoughts. (Christopher Taylor)
Taylor’s photographic style, austere and focused on details, is more akin to visual poetry than documentary. And yet, in its assertive subjectivity, it reveals a profound truth about Chinese life—a present steeped in a millennia-old culture of builders and farmers, deeply connected to the land.
The familiar strangeness of the objects, landscapes, and characters that inhabit his photographs stems from a meditative approach to travel, one that favours slow, immersive exploration. Through long walks in Chinese cities and countryside, he seeks out scenes and details evoking an intimate resonance that speak to us of a presence in the world that must be constantly questioned and examined.
Christopher Taylor – La Voie du Milieu, Reflets de la Chine (1988-2019)
From November 15th to January 11th, 2025
Galerie Camera Obscura
268, boulevard Raspail 75014 Paris
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Galerie Camera Obscura
268, boulevard Raspail 75014 Paris
November 15, 2024 to January 11, 2025
