The Exhibition
The Ephemereal Forest is a collection of photographs taken on the beaches of the Côte D’Armor in Brittany. The images come from the fragile formations left in the sand by the ebbing tide. These natural sculptures last only a few hours and are erased at each turn of tide before reappearing in completely different form according to the rhythm of the ocean. These spontaneous designs, ephemereal by nature, have their own personal language, full of emotion, mystery and beauty.
All images are printed by subligraphy process on sheets of matte aluminum in two sizes (50x50 cm and 30x30 cm.) Each size is a limited edition of 10.
What is Contemplative Photography?
A Tibetan monk named Chögyam Trungpa created this approach to photography, also known as Miksang, which means “good eye” in the Tibetan language.
The art of Miksang consists of firstly admiring and appreciating the richness of the ordinary world which surrounds us. It then asks us to reconnect to that world directly, without forethought or technical interference. It is an interior process which brings us back to our primary vision, our flash of perception, our “wow” moment. Cartier Bresson called this “the decisive moment” at which the need to record a colour, shape, feeling or light occurs, without analysis or further thought.
The composition of the photograph is pared down, from whence comes the term “minimalist” or “contemplative photography”. That flash of perception is what is captured. You open yourself up to the light.
What is Subligraphy?
The process requires the use of a hot press (approximately 200 ° C.) which thermally transfers by sublimation the ink jet pigments, which have been previously printed on a transparent support, to an aluminum plate coated with a polymer.
Because the aluminum plates used are only 1.7 mm thick, art subligraphic prints are perfectly flat and extremely lightweight. The lack of a laminated support eliminates the risk of chemically aggressive substances such as glue, adhesives, acidity, ozone, or CO2, which would alter and discolour pigments over time.
The result is exceptional and long-lasting because encapsulating hot pigments in the polymer gives the aluminum support an extreme resistance to water, fire, chemical fumes, abrasions and scratches, whilst respecting colour precision. This technique offers exceptional archival quality, estimated to be about 100 years under ideal conditions.
