In September 2012, the Egyptian photographer Nabil Boutros was in a residence at the Peuteot Citroën automobile factory in Saint-Ouen, France, to accompany the composer Nicolas Frize. The objective of this year-long residency was to combined several artistic disciplines and create a mobile musical creation, which was performed in several places across the city in February 2014.
In the series Objects, Boutros photographs different items produced by the factory. Sometimes, he plays with the lighting to emphasize different parts of the object, as if for a museum catalogue. At other times, it’s the projected shadow that creates a new imaginative world. “What inspires me more than anything else is discrepancy,” says Boutros. “Is it an industrial object? I treat it like an object in a museum. Are the geometric shapes recognizable? The shadows are entirely different. I was motivated by the desire to show what I saw, all while having fun and making reference to the classics like Harcourt and Man Ray along the way.”
This series echoes another series, Figures, which addresses the place of man in a world of standardized for production, while another series breaks down the physical movements made every day by workers.
Born in Cairo, Nabil Boutros lives in Paris. Originally a painter, then a designer, he has used as a medium since 1986. His previous work includes a large portrait series on Egyptians, an exploration of the country’s popular music and a look at Alexandria today. He spent seven years documenting the lives of the Copts. His work has been exhibited in Europe, America and Africa, and he regularly leads workshops on photography.
http://www.nabil-boutros.com/
http://www.espace-1789.com/
Interview : http://www.afriqueinvisu.org/egyptian,555.html
