At dinner with a journalist friend of mine the other night, I was commenting his review of a recently released DSLR I just read in an Italian photo magazine. What caught my attention was his style: he can competently write about cameras with the same liveliness, sparkle and lightness we usually find in motor reviews (no wonder, as he has been the editor of a motorcycle monthly in the past). Why car and bike "literature" usually gives us a youth-adventurous-playful feeling, whereas photo gear reviews look like they were written for ultra-septuagenarian, depressed and ulcerous retired principals? Frankly, I don't know. Perhaps because cars and bikes are mostly bought for their inherent purpose, which is moving people from a place to another place, whereas cameras are often bought in order to gauge and compare their theoretical performances. On the other hand, cars and bikes are too big and expensive to be only used as onanistic gadgets, whereas cameras are perfectly suitable for this.
A test chart
Whatever the reason, the result is that for many people photography, instead of being a free and uninhibited creative process, ends up shrinking to a matter of technical "politeness": separating power and MTF figures outweigh aesthetic values, and test charts become the most inspected and commented images among those published by specialized magazines. As if cuisine was about knives instead than food.
This is why my eye is always caught by impolite photographs. If motion blur (along with focus blur) is traditionally considered as the most serious cause for a photograph to be charged of impoliteness, French photographer LIONEL BOISSAYE must be considered seriously guilty of motion blur in the first degree.
A photograph by Lionel Boissaye
Born in 1970 and based in Nantes, Lionel's photographic work is deeply rooted into contemporary painting (in fact he's also a painter). So much so that mentioning Francis Bacon is simply unavoidable (and I hope Lionel won't take this amiss). Yet reading his biosketch we learn that, contrary to many others, he discovered painting when his photographic career was already established. Which is a crucial detail, as modern (impolite) photography is in the process of pushing its language's boundaries towards territories which are being explored by other medias in the meantime (not only paintings, but also graphics, video...). Not so reassuring, perhaps, for those who try to cage photography within test charts and pigeonhole art into a well defined map. But for the rest of us, viewing Lionel's "Vanités" or "Des Yeux" galleries is a much refreshing and enriching visual experience. Enjoy.
A painting by Francis Bacon
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