Until November 10, 2024, Juliette Agnel is exhibiting her prints at the Château de Tours as part of the “Stone, Leaf, Flint” exhibition. Winner of the Niepce Prize in 2023, several of her series can be seen with the common thread of seeking a primordial nature.
In 2019, Juliette Agnel went to Martinique for a residency . Her playground on the island was very large: with the help of a guide, she traversed the island’s forests. The primary forest was a source of inspiration, and the immense trees will never leave her again. Indeed, primary forests are rare in Europe, where the forests have been deforested in a large part. For several millennia, they have witnessed the development and evolution of the human species.
Portraits of Plants
If nature, like the human species, has evolved, one plant has remained unchanged: the fern. It has witness the time of the dinosaurs and the arrival of the first humans. Juliette Agnel pays tribute with her series of fern portraits. Each unique leaf, is photographed front and back against a black background in the most beautiful studio: in the heart of nature.
Individualizing Nature
A resident of Yonne, Juliette Agnel found flint stones in her garden. With the help of a camera obscura, she creates portraits, always outdoors, of these stones. And what about humans in this exhibition? Our tendency to place ourselves at the center of everything creates blinders to the world around us. The human presence in Juliette Agnel’s exhibition is found in the hand of a child dating back several millennia. The short film accompanying this image takes us into the Arcy-sur-Cure cave, following the steps of its current owner. This mystical visit takes us back in time thru the simple contemplation of the walls.
Juliette Agnel’s photographic work does not leave us indifferent. A sense of being a fragment, a celebration of life in all its forms, these few suspended moments in time surprise us and remind us of our place as mere humans, temporary tenants on earth.
Juliette Agnel – “Stone, Leaf, Flint” Until November 10, 2024 Jeu de Paume Tours
