Two exhibitions in Paris, one at Galerie Sit Down and the other on the facades of the MK2 Bibliothèque cinema in the 13th arrondissement, as well as a book published by the Éditions du Regard are letting us discover the delicate and thoughtful work of Jérémie Nassif.
The Voltige series was sparked by a meeting with Bartabas, the creator of the equestrian show Zingaro and the person in charge of the Academy of Equestrian Arts in Versailles since 2003. After seeing his exhibition at the European House of Photography, He asked Jérémie Nassif to photograph horses as if they were dancers, his first subjects. In both cases, it was a question of taming movement and translating it to fixed images. Utopia? Fantasy? Not for Jérémie Nassif who, after having started as a cinematic set photographer and having collaborated with Claude Charbrol and Jacques Doillon, was the director of a short film. A self-taught photographer, Jérémie Nassif makes every effort within each image to try and show the movement of a subject in space. It is not about reconstructing steps in the manner of Eadweard Muybridge or Étienne-Jules Marey. His goal is neither scientific nor documentary. One only needs to look at his images to see that. Jérémie Nassif’s intention is, as he himself describes, “to extend time”. He wants to show a reality which takes place beyond a fraction of a second (that which José Alvarez names “the expressive moment” in the text of the Éditions du Regard book). Neither collage nor overlay, “that which I show in my photos happened in front of me ,” he explains. In fact, it is the result of a recipe (as he likes to call it) that he developed. One such alchemist who would have found the formula to turn lead into gold, Jérémie Nassif succeeded in transforming reality while being a witness. In the end, it is not so much the technique that counts, but the result: “We have to reclaim the images based on our own stories and real-life experiences,” he notes. From one subject to another, from black and white to color, we find the same coherence between photography, printmaking and painting. Ultimately, nothing surprising from a photographer who, when young, loved wondering through galleries.
EXHIBITIONS
Voltige
Jérémie Nassif
• Until April 6th, 2016
Galerie Sit Down
4, rue Sainte-Anastase
75003 Paris
France
http://www.sitdown.fr
• Until March 16th, 2016
MK2 Bibliothèque cinema
128/162 av. de France
75013 Paris
Paris
BOOK
L’instant expressif
Editions du Regard
83 pages
26 €
