Random Excellence: Frédérick Carnet

Frédérick Carnet, from Le fragile équilibre d'être (the fragile balance of being)

Frédérick Carnet is an interesting photographer in that he works in series—Andrew Molitor, who drew my attention to him, wrote that he "sequences...with real genius."

This requires more on the part of the viewer. To look at them, I suggest picking a series and scrolling through it slowly, letting each picture stop in front of your eyes for a brief "soak," then moving deliberately to the next, paying special attention to the effect of the whole series while trying to suppress your immediate snap judgement of each photograph. They're not standalone pieces—the effect needs to be cumulative. This requires a different kind of "reading" of the photographs, as reading poetry differs from reading prose, or reading a novel differs from reading a textbook. Don't give up too easily; try it on a few different series to see if you begin to get the knack.

Frédérick, who kindly consented to letting me republish the photograph above as a single image, said, "I do work in series and this picture is part of one serie which itself is part of a full body of work called Chronicles of an Absolute shot between 2009 and 2015."

I think you will appreciate exploring his website, as I did.

Mike
(Thanks to Andrew and Frédérick)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Animesh Ray: "A stunning shot. Given the apparent simplicity of the composition, and the somewhat pedestrian nature of each of the two parts of the image separately, the juxtaposition is startlingly creative. A fine example of an emergent property of merely two objects placed within a compositional frame. Bravo!"

Comments

[Michael Roche]

I must confess Mike my artistic appreciation levels have not yet reached the level of sophistication required to understand this body of work, however I look forward to reading others comments as it is never too late to learn and improve one's tastes in these matters.
Michael.

[cdembrey]

I don't like poetry and I didn't care for this. Some of use are more intellectual while others are more visceral. Nothing here grabbed me by the throat.

This looks more like something I'd enjoy Henri Cartier-Bresson: Mexican Notebooks 1934-1964 https://www.amazon.com/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Mexican-Notebooks-1934-1964/dp/050054199X In 1934 HCB was still openly a surrealist.

And Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers https://www.amazon.com/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Writings-Photography-Photographers/dp/0893818755/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0893818755&pd_rd_r=D21F0KWMHF947R127YSP&pd_rd_w=R0CaU&pd_rd_wg=ZDq86&psc=1&refRID=D21F0KWMHF947R127YSP

[Tim Bradshaw]

I think these are great. I've always been interested in carefully-ordered sequences of things: good photobooks, good exhibitions of photographs and, of course, albums (of songs).

But (there has to be a but) I was really annoyed by the presentation. This may be browser-dependent, but for me (with what is, sadly, now a slightly non-mainstream browser -- Firefox) I had to adjust the browser window so I only saw one picture at a time (because I really don't want to see the edge of the next/previous picture and then laboriously scroll to see the next picture and adjust it to be right. That was just off-putting.