A photographic look at the Venuses of prehistory.
Claire Artemyz photographs prehistoric objects in museum collections. His silver images and without retouching testify to an unprecedented and poetic vision of these moving vestiges of our past. In À une Passante, the photographer engages in a silent dialogue with Paleolithic women: a face in the pope's grotto, the immodest Venus, those who dance, who live, who give birth... The photographs were taken at the Museum of and at the National Archaeological Museum, National Domain of Saint-Germain-en-Laye from the original objects kept in their collections. The 80-page brochure is digitally printed in four colors on Munken Polar paper.
Anyone who has held the original of a Paleolithic female figurine in their hands knows what emotion can arise from such an encounter. Meeting of the hands with the sculpted material – with the smooth softness of ivory, the polish of steatite, the roughness of limestone. Encounter of the gaze with the curves and angles of these naked bodies – opulent forms, abundant breasts, bulging bellies, deeply marked vulva, outline of legs and arms, tiny feet and hands. Often the head is absent or reduced to a smooth ball, without drawn features, or lacerated with a grid pattern. But it also happens that a face looks at us: slender and graceful oval neck framed by hair tied in pigtails or tight in curls in a net. The traces of pigments, the fractures of the ivory, the intentional breaks or those which resulted from the unfortunate blows of the pickaxes of the excavators, inscribe these figurines, at the same time, in deep time and in history. Claudine Cohen, Director of Studies at EHESS, Paris, October 2018 – Extract from the book, page 5
Claire Artemyz is a photographer who explores both Nature and Culture, seeking beauty in its most subversive aspect. The artist explores different worlds in a questioning of human identity, from prehistory to tattoos and other body modifications. The photographer works in close-up and uses the lights to reveal these subjects as we have never seen them.
Buy the book: https://www.escourbiac.com/claire-artemyz/
Title: "To a passerby"
Author: Claire Artemyz
ISBN: 978-2-956980-350-8
Photographs: Claire Artemyz
Texts: Claudine Cohen, Catherine Schwab
Number of pages: 80
Processing: format 14.85 x 21 cm à la française, 4-page cover, sewn square spine
Impression :
- Cover: quadri recto/verso, matte lamination recto
- Interior: quadri recto/verso
Types of papers used:
- Cover: printed on Munken Polar 300 g
- Interior: printed on Munken Polar 150 g
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