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At first Martin d'Orgeval's fifth monograph, Découpages, appears as a collection of found objects, an anonymous catalogue with an unknown purpose. As the book unfolds, our vision embarks on a mysterious journey: the photographer's unmitigated attention to shapes and shades, and lines and surfaces, challenges our ingrained viewing habits. Our personal associations and perceptions mingle with photographs of stacked marble plates in which nature and man's intervention combine to produce self-processed, "cut-out" drawings and structures, "découpages"-a symbolic echo of what early pioneer of photography William Henry Fox Talbot coined in The Pencil of Nature (1844-46), the first commercially produced book illustrated with photographs.
About the author
Martin d 'Orgeval was born in 1973 in Paris, where he still lives and works. His work has been exhibited in France, USA,§England, Germany, Italy and China, in particular at Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Musée de la Chasse§et de la Nature, Paris; Villa Oppenheim, Berlin; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples; Galerie Hussenot, Paris; Adamson§Gallery, Washington; Pace Gallery, Beijing. Découpages is d Orgeval s fourth book with Steidl.
Summary
At first Martin d’Orgeval’s fifth monograph, Découpages, appears as a collection of found objects, an anonymous catalogue with an unknown purpose. As the book unfolds, our vision embarks on a mysterious journey: the photographer’s unmitigated attention to shapes and shades, and lines and surfaces, challenges our ingrained viewing habits. Our personal associations and perceptions mingle with photographs of stacked marble plates in which nature and man’s intervention combine to produce self-processed, “cut-out” drawings and structures, “découpages”—a symbolic echo of what early pioneer of photography William Henry Fox Talbot coined in The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), the first commercially produced book illustrated with photographs.
