Artists’ Motives (2012–2013)

In 2012–2013, I embarked upon the series Artists’ Motives as an homage to those whose creative practice serves as the driving force or “motive” of a resistance to uniformity, and whose singularity deserves to be preserved and represented. I encountered a wide range of artists (visual artists, sculptors, printmakers, architects, bookbinders, hairdressers, graphic designers, ..) within the intimacy of their studios, confidential spaces in which worlds-in-the-making take shape. Together, we devised a specific mise en scène for each location, arranging with care the meaningful elements so as to offer a visual synthesis of each artist’s approach and output. I employed a 17 mm tilt-shift lens, deliberately accentuating distortions to create the impression of an expanded, fragmented, and almost uncanny vision, in contrast to the modest dimensions of most of these spaces. Although originating from a call for projects by the Louvre-Lens, the initiative followed its own path, resulting in a corpus of images that, more than mere documentation, constitute a scenographic and considered reading of artistic practice.