Jean-Michel Pouzet

Founder in the 1970s of the Talasa group in Nantes for social photography. Now advocates for a more artistic photography that breaks free from certain academic norms; a contemporary, minimalist, colourist and narrative photography, where allegorical interpretation is key.

The style is characterized by the use of large formats (120 x 240 cm), minimalist images with vibrant colors, and plays on lines and shapes. The subjects are presented in series, images paired with a text of about twenty lines. The photographs depict objects photographed in close-up against a backdrop of sky, objects that lose all objective meaning, completely diverted from their original functions. The viewer is invited to engage with both interpretations: that of the text and that of the image, and to experience them together as if one were the mirror of the other, as if the text plus the image were the text and music of a "photographic song."

Through surjectivity (prefix "on" as in surrealist), the objectivity or subjectivity of photography is confronted with the overcoming of reality; photography then gives itself up in an expressionism to the intimate discourse.

The “Surjective Variations" represent the 5th opus of this artistic approach, following four other proposals: “New Surjective Visions", “Surjective Series", “Symbolic Impressions" and “Another Reality" since 2010.