It is often said of the photograph that it fixes an instant forever, that it stops time and freezes a moment of life. But here, as I lost myself in the procession of Philippe’s photos, what struck me instead was this backwash of moments. Looking at the slide show in the half-light of this cabin, I had the impression of being immersed in a plurality of lives, in a swirl of moments.
I saw time at work, a scene taking place before our eyes – as if the ‘before’ was still alive with its discernible stigmata, the ‘after’ left to our imagination. Far from being a fixity, it is a ‘present’ in motion that is visible and, moreover, one that allows itself to be seen. This time, this movement emanating from these photos, is life itself!
From a print, be it a photographic print or a digital image, a profundity emerges, a relationship between the subject or subjects and Philippe. The inexpressible transcends and creates movement, that impression of plunging into a ‘before’ that endures here and now, at the very moment of the observer’s viewing.
From “The day after tomorrow, tomorrow will be yesterday” there resonates, in mirror image, the sensation that the day before the day before yesterday is in its own future a today. This is how Philippe’s photos are a ‘today’, a ‘present’ that seems to be in motion and that echoes yesterday, the time when he pressed his finger so that that moment would live on. And it still does!
Joséphine Constantin
Après-demain, demain sera hier
Photographies de Philippe Gabel
Exhibition 19 october / 14 november 2021
Opening party saturday 23 october 18h-22h
Mind’s Eye / Galerie Adrian Bondy
221 rue Saint-Jacques
75005 Paris
06 85 93 41 92
