Jacques Damez

Jacques Damez was born in 1959. He learned to read with the whole language method, which encouraged his dyslexia and naturally oriented him towards pictures. Photography soon became his second mother tongue. In the early 1980s, having found few fellow-speakers, he opened a gallery with Catherine Dérioz, to promote and reflect on this particular means of capturing reality. Twenty-five years later, things are still going strong: he's still a photographer, still a gallery owner, still with Catherine.

He made the most of this period by working to forge links between his two languages, with an essay on the importance of photography in the work of Hans Hartung entitled Hans Hartung photographe, la légende d’une œuvre, which started out as a diploma at the EHESS (2001). Several books of photographs have been published along the way: Contraintes par corps, La 25ème heure, l’autoportrait inaccessible, Paysages au vent d’Autan, Vues de l’esprit, Jardin en coulisse, Lyon La Confluence-Mémoires en mutation (3books) andTombée des nues. These record his projects, progressions and reflections… interspersed with moments of silence. To give this underlying quiescence a certain solidity, he constructed plenty of walls, floors and ceilings, thereby thinking with his hands.

These manual experiences led him to rediscover tactile, physical sensations, which in turn helped him to understand space. His interest in building naturally led him to photograph the Cité Internationale, designed by Renzo Piano, within the framework of an open commission. He is currently involved in a highly unusual urbanistic venture: the ""Confluence de Lyon"", for which he is working on a photographic, videographic and sociological project in the framework of a three-year carte blanche program.

He keeps his sense of smell alive by plunging his nose into the earth, his sense of touch by rubbing his hands on the bark of trees, his sense of sight by gazing into the infinity of a horizon… and then he can go back to the city, to his books.

In the course of his life, he has taken part in a great many exhibitions and continues to do so, but he has no memory for names, and there's something sad about lists. In conclusion, there are people who collect his photographs, others who look at them, and others who help him to live just by being there. Basically, he takes photographs because photography is one of his greatest pleasures… and he is sure that nothing matters more than that.