An icon is a picture, something for the mind to gaze at. It’s an archetype, the closest and most primitive ideal to perfection. Whether it would be religious or secular, it can be as much of an obsession ̶ as arousing sheer fascination.
Movie stars, often desired and idolized; rich and powerful, are to dream of but yet to reach. Their virtual presence in our everyday life is an illusion that charms and haunts us while keeping us from the real world.
My take was on those who convey a particular emotion, who I see as beings with a rare beauty and elegance, whose life choices are synonymous of commitments and fights. Beings to whom the words emancipation, liberation, rebellion, have a special resonance in their life as well as in the films they play in. [Beings] who fight in order to better society but are still fragile and vulnerable nonetheless; whose fate may be tragic.
On the Icons series, I wanted to pursue my exploration of Seventh Art throughout photography. This colored portraits series has been done from actual movie [stills] projected onscreen. Each photography is the pictorial reinterpretation of a scene in which the look, the expression or the gesture of the Star touched me. The chromatic sfumato making them even more out of time and mysterious. Their yet famous faces still remaining an enigma that I let up to each and every one of you to unfold. Because that is what myths, legends and icons do.
François Fontaine
More information on: www.whynotproductions.fr
Information
Salon du Panthéon (1st floor of the cinema)
13 rue Victor Cousin, 75005 Paris, France
October 16, 2019 to December 31, 2019
