An icon is an image, an object of contemplation, an unparalleled model. It is the archetype, the primitive and ideal model, approaching perfection in Platonic ideas. For the philosopher Jung it is the universal symbol of the collective unconscious. Whether religious or secular, an icon obsesses as much as it fascinates. Like those omnipresent cinema icons in our contemporary societies.
The film stars, desired and adulated, rich and powerful, make us dream but remain inaccessible. They live most often recluses, victims of their notoriety, evolving in a closed universe which weakens and sometimes destroys them. Their daily virtual presence is an illusion that charms and haunts us, while taking us away from the real world. Yesterday as today, the aestheticized and idealized image of the stars, shaped by the unparalleled genius of the Hollywood industry, continues to captivate us.
Among the countless stars that punctuate the history of cinema, my eyes fell on those that transmit a particular emotion, both by their plasticity and by their presence in the world. Those I consider icons are of rare beauty and elegance whose life choices are synonymous with commitment and fighting: Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot. Beings for whom the words emancipation, liberation, rebellion, have a particular resonance in their life as in their films. People struggling to change society but who remain fragile and vulnerable. And whose destiny can be tragic sometimes: Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Romy Schneider …
With the Icônes series, I wanted to continue my exploration of the 7th Art through photography. This series of portraits, in color, of the biggest female and male stars of the cinema was made from films projected on screen. Each photograph is the pictorial reinterpretation of a scene in which evolves a star whose look, expression or gesture moved me. The chromatic sfumato that composes these portraits makes these beings even more timeless and mysterious. Their famous faces, that one could contemplate indefinitely, remain however an enigma, I leave to each viewer the care to decipher. What is unique to myths, legends and icons.
François Fontaine
