A newcomer to the photographic scene in 2013, Anton F. has since participated in numerous exhibitions in Paris, Bordeaux, and Milan. For the third consecutive year, he returns to the Galerie de l’Europe from June 9 to July 9 to present Mon Quartier Lointain, an insightful series made in Togo, where the artist has resided part-time for the past seven years.
Like the solitary walker in the work of Jiro Taniguchi, the Japanese manga writer whom the title of the series alludes to, Anton F. traversed on foot the working-class district of Lomé, where he lives with his family, and the city of Aného, the country’s former capital. He sought to capture with his camera the emotions aroused by these places. Far from espousing a documentary approach, his series reflects a dispersed intimate and poetic geography of these coastal urban areas.
The photographer, who deliberately evokes painters, he is particularly fond of Rothko and Kiefer. Like them, he is obsessed with composition and fascinated by geometry. The captivating power of his images is undoubtedly a fruit of this obsession characterized by the use of square format and constant play with lines and symmetries. Anton F. constructs seamless architectures that allow him to take his message to the extreme. His pictures thus convey the essence of the African land he fell in love with: they express its magic, its turbulent history, and its longing for the future.
EXHIBITION
Mon quartier lointain
Anton F.
Du 9 juin au 9 juillet 2016
Galerie de l’Europe
55 rue de Seine
75006 Paris
France
Tél. : 01 55 42 94 23
Du mardi au samedi : 10h30-13h & 14h-19h
