“Filmmaker, Guy Gilles has photographed throughout his life. If his cinematographic oeuvre remained discret, his photographic work remained voluntarily secret, Guy Gilles not wishing, for a long time, to exhibit. Towards the end of his life, however, he decided to show some of his clichés, and prepared a show that he will not have time to see, caught up by his illness .
Whether he’s photographing in Algeria, Spain, Morocco, or Mexico, his favorite subjects are the same: the street, the beach, the objects, the children, the faces, the tanned bodies and lascivious young boys, these images gripping like those of his films the « play of reflections and lights, glare and shadows”, as wrote Jean-Louis Bory fervent and faithful defender of Guy Gilles films. His taste for the organization of forms is revealed in his photographs with a structure that is both very composed, playing on lines and reflections, but also very spontaneous, snatching on the spot, a pose, a look, a smile.
This never seen exhibition at the Galerie Patrick Gutknecht is a unique opportunity to see these images exposed, that show a light intimately linked to yearning for childhood time in his native Algeria, which gives them a sweet and warm nostalgia.
Mélanie Forret
Galerie Patrick Gutknecht
78 rue de Turenne
75003 Paris France
