To kick off its 2013 program, the Galerie Hélène Detaille gave carte blanche to Matthias Olmeta, who continues his exploration of the ambrotype (sometimes called ‘collodion positive’). The first works Olmeta produced using this process, Quest for Humility, are reminiscent of vanitas paintings: the artist places himself into the frame surrounded by elements of his life. The ambrotype does not fix the image; the vibrations of the silver, specific to this technique, offer freedom.
In more recent works, like Yantras and Roots, Olmeta assembles pieces to make family portraits and evocations of the plant and animal world. He begins by photographing simple things: a flower, a stone, a rare fish, a loved one, and treats them like raw materials. By bringing them together in polyptychs, he reconstructs a family in all its complexity, with the wealth of natural forms, and the enigmatic animal presence.
“In my work, I explore subjects like portraits, flower photos, vanitas, and things brought back from my travels in Peru and the Amazon. The intention is always based on shamanic connection to the four energies of nature: air, earth, water and fire.” – Matthias Olmeta
Matthias Olmeta was born in Marseille, where he lives and works. He left France at 18 to study photography and visual arts in California. A graduate of the UC-Santa Monica (class of 1991), he traveled across the world (London, Paris, New York, Berlin, Anvers, Bangkok, South America), a journey that continue to influence his work. He was active in several photography workshops with marginalized groups like Greek prostitutes and patients in psychiatric hospitals.
You can read the full article in the French version of Le Journal
EXHIBITION
Rêves de Silence, Matthias Olmeta
January 12 – March 23, 2013
Galerie Hélène Detaille
5 rue Marius Jauffret
13008 Marseille
France
T: +33 (0)4 91 53 43 46
[email protected]
