Arnaud Joly

Like a desire to photograph the ephemeral that has always been present in me, throughout these 25 years of travel which took me across Asia and more particularly among the various tribes of the South-East. Hundreds of photographs of faces, fabrics, costumes, rituals, dances, architecture, markets, country life which will remain inked in me and which will bear witness to a bygone past.

My backpacking photographer suitcases brought me to the Armoric coast; like a voluntary exile; to find there astonishment serenity and tranquility; a quieter, more interior itinerary but just as enriching as a learning of oneself; camera in hand, lifelong friend, during long strolls on these captivating and magical beaches of the Côtes d'Armor.

As evidence, I looked at traces, sands, shapes, algae, rocks; like an invitation to travel, an initiatory journey that capsizes our soul between the real and the imaginary and discover the ephemeral vision of a fragile mineral and plant life, doomed in the long term to disappear, that it was urgent to photograph .

The generous nature, still rebellious, reveals itself to the lens, for a moment, to resume everything a few moments later and renews this show, at its good will, the following day, to end inevitably by no longer being able to offer anything if the hand of man continues to hinder it; pollution and global warming already working on its transformation.

A few years later, I am ready to humbly exhibit this work, lay bare my photographer's soul, invite you to enter my unique universe and offer you another aesthetic perception of matter, light and color, leaving me hopes that whoever will be watching, the freedom to let their imagination wander.

Like Baudelaire, should we see in the imagination "the queen of truth"? Is the truth in the imagination as I like to write it? is the imagination the eye of the soul? I tend to think that reality is sometimes a prison where the imagination is the key. I don't know if these photographs represent a certain materialization of this key, but perhaps they contribute a little.