LAKE A MIRROR

LAKE A MIRROR is a collection of photographs all taken from the same place, and always from the same horizon, the lake… only the moment and the framing change. They are the raw reflet of the nature, seasons, wind, clouds, sun, ... 

These images are the mirror of our moods, our emotions, ... our external lights and our internal shadows.

The lake, like a mirror of the human soul and solitude in the vast expanse... a place for contemplation.

CONCEPT

The lake as a canvas. The sun, the light, and the shadows as paint. The wind, the waves, and the natural ripples as brushes. The photographer to capture this raw scene. The artist to reflect their emotions in the mirror—the lake. Impressionist photography that mirror these scenes.

If, for Alphonse de Lamartine, photography is the art of painting with light (Photo from φωτoς, photos: light; … graphy from γραφειν, graphein: to paint, draw, write, …), then might we create the term limnigraphy here? (λίμνη, límni: lake), or even lemangraphy ?

WORK

The first part of the project LAKE A MIRROR, which began in 2017, is to capture the reality of these photographs of lakeside scenes, to show it, to experience it, to feel it…  

The second part, carried out in 2022, is an extensive bibliographic research project, which is included in the book LAKE A MIRROR, aimed at comparing these Lake Geneva landscapes with the quotes they inspired in many famous artists such as Courbet, Hodler, Kokoschka, Turner and Vallotton, Hemingway, Hugo, Ramuz, Rousseau, Byron, Cendrars, Cocteau, Eluard, Chaplin, Godard, Freddy Mercury, Prince… An attempt to mirror their quotes against the original source of their inspiration, the meeting of photographed reality and the freedom of these artists.

The third part, created in 2026, is an  iconographic exploration of paintings and photographs also inspired by Lake Geneva, lakes, seas, oceans, light, mirrors… 

The two bibliographic and iconographic studies, conducted retrospectively, do not claim to compare LAKE A MIRROR to the works of major artists, but perhaps aim to show that a lake alone can inspire numerous works of art and serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists.     

COLLECTIONS & SERIES

The LAKE A MIRROR collection, which began in 2017, currently consists of seven art series of 12 to 32 photographs each. The LAKE A PAINTING series of painting-like photographs, the LAKE A PANORAMIC series of panoramic photographs, and five more abstract series LAKE GOLD, LAKE SILVER, LAKE BLACK, LAKE WAVES and LAKE MATRIX. The title of each photograph is the name of the series, along with the date and time it was taken.

The LAKE A JET OF LIGHT collection, comprising two series – LAKE A BOAT and LAKE A DECO – was originally specially selected through a design competition for the iconic Hôtel Métropole in Geneva.

TECHNIC

Most of the photographs capture completely blinding mirror effects, requiring the use of polarised sunglasses to compose the shot. The shots are then taken, deliberately without filter, in manual mode to avoid any overexposure from the sun’s rays reflected by the lake. 

The chosen technique allows for the black effect in broad daylight… The effect of seeing the mirror rather than the reflection, the effect of seeing the inner shadows rather than the outer lights, not being dazzled but seeing. Filters and other techniques add contrast and spectacular colors to photographs. In an instant, these surreal images leap out at us... dazzling us and blinding us. Here, on the contrary, with these raw photographs you have to take the time to let your gaze plunge into the image, the mirror, the lake... and see. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said: The photos capture me, not the other way around.