Ce qu’il reste [What remains] addresses the tension between the cool mastery of man-made environment and the strange majesty of organic forms slowly shaped by the natural elements and evolution. The series presents a juxtaposition between, on the one hand, images showing how human action has transformed the landscape, and on the other hand, photographs showing organic and aquatic life on Earth. By moving back and forth between these two points of view, the project invites a change of perspective, reminding us that the environment shaped and controlled by man is also fragile and ephemeral.
From a wider angle, Ce qu’il reste is an invitation to travel - in space, but also in time. A journey through images created with a camera. Photography itself is often considered as the medium of the ephemeral. It shows us a moment that undeniably belongs to the past, reveals our passages in a constantly changing reality, like a scar recalling our memories: a metaphor of the fragility of human existence. But it is that same medium which eventually leads the spectator to a change of perspective, showing what remains when the same spaces are left by those who once inhabited them, with their individual stories and collective memories. Far from the turmoil of men, in the silent depths of the earth, an imperturbable and majestic movement continues its slow trajectory undertaken hundreds of millions of years ago. And maybe for eternity.
Ce qu'il reste
published by XYZ Books
Photographs: Bénédicte Blondeau
Editing: Bénédicte Blondeau, Tiago Casanova and Pedro Guimarães
Design: Joana Durães
Prepress: Pedro Guimarães
Printing: Maiadouro
2019
XYZ Books
52 pages
cover: copper paper (offset print + silk screen)
inside: 24 duotone plates and 4 CMYK plates
20 x 28 cm
Softcover
First Edition
Edition of 450 copies
ISBN 978-989-99063-9-6
You can order the book through the publisher
or send me an email
Finalist for Photo España’s best book award (international category) and shortlisted for the ADAGP MAD Revelation Artist Book Award.
Honorable mention at the DGLab Book Design Awards 2020 and nominated for the Best Book Design from All Over the World 2021 - German Book Art Foundation (Stiftung Buchkunst).
Installation views
Solo exhibition at Photoforum Pasquart in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
12.09.2021 - 21.11.2021