Alexandra Catiere
Alexandra Catiere’s nomadic path in life illustrates her desire to reach out to the universal. From the former Soviet Union to France via the United States, this young photographer makes timelessness a crucial aspect of her work. Reviving the humanist tradition, her images portray sensations, atmospheres that she manages to capture. Without limiting herself exclusively to the genres of portraiture and reportage, Alexandra Catiere considers the camera to be the instrument of her empathy for human nature and life.
Project
MMXX
Acclaimed for her highly original approach to portrait photography, Alexandra Catiere seeks to reveal all that is timeless and universal within us. In the humanist tradition, her images capture sensations and atmospheres. In this new project, she aims to experiment with certain processes whilst at the same time returning to the origins of photography and the revelation that takes place in the darkroom.
“A journey…
My goal is to turn inwards. I will still take photographs, but what interests me most of all is to push back the boundaries of traditional photography, to explore my archive of negatives, to experiment with new processes, to create a detached body of work, liberated from the real, and unique – that describes our place on Earth and our fragility, and that reveals our anxieties.
Over the last fifteen years, I have developed a photographic practice that has aroused international interest for its sensitive and unusual approach to portraits. Not confined to figurative research, my installations form photographic murals that are a poetic blend of subtly autobiographical fragments of life.
Using my expertise in black and white and paying meticulous attention to my prints, I hope to reveal all that is timeless and universal in us. All my work revolves around the theme of the cycle of life. Ostensibly nostalgic, it does not exclusively focus on the past. Ultimately, I am far more inclined to wonder about what lies in store for today’s generation.
In this new project, I come back to the origins of photography and the use of the medium that brings about a revelation. Photos are acts of creation at the moment they are taken but also when they are printed. I call them “photogenic paintings”. In the darkroom, I let instinct guide me and combine different techniques (photograms, solarization, and photomontage). I use various materials that correspond metaphorically to my visual research”.