In the footsteps of his naval officer father, François Fontaine criss-crossed South-east Asia, China, Japan and India for more than twenty years. Some long thematic series with titles more poetic than documentary punctuated his journey: Au fil du Mékong, Lost in China, Japanese Whispers, L’Heure sacrée, Rêve d’Orient…
These series are an invitation to travel. A poetic, sensorial and dream-like journey in which, through his framing and approach to the use of colour, the photographer passes on a timeless and poetic vision of Asia. On board the mythical Trans-Siberian he was interested in the silence of the shapes, the density of the materials and the sensuality of the bodies. In China, he let himself be guided by the traces and smells of a thousand-year old civilisation that was disappearing. In Japan, he plunged into a floating, silent world evoking the engravings of his childhood. In India, he immersed himself in Hinduism’s sacred places, imbued with the mystic and the supernatural. In Cambodia, he allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the reflections that bathe the city of Angkor.
In taking the timeless character of the journey, his poetry and the dream as themes, François Fontaine has prepared an artistic work strongly inspired by literature and the cinema, by letting himself be guided by his intuition and emotion. The exhibition Rêve d’Orient at the Maison de la Chine is a faithful reflection of this.
François Fontaine, Rêve d’Orient
From 10th April to 17th June 2017
Maison de la Chine
76 rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
France
www.maisondelachine.fr
Book: François Fontaine Rêve d’Orient
Published by Éditions Filigranes in 2015, 27 euros
