Black Moon
The Black Moon is a monographic exhibition of Alexandre Arminjon's work, designed by Roger Herrera. It offers a dizzying dive into the inner world of the photographer through his black and white photographs of the Atacama Desert in Chile. Composed of fifteen prints, including five large formats and ten solarizations, this series is the result of two solitary trips through the Atacama, in 2018 and 2019. For several weeks, Alexandre Arminjon will travel alone and dedicate himself entirely, with a ritual rigor and discipline, to the photographic practice in contact with the extreme contrasts of the desert.
The black and white images that emerge from this initiatory journey call for a form of transcendence - unreal representations of the infinite unreal representations of the infinite, they are above all visions of the greatness and the inner desert. The Black Moon presents prints that desaturate the red desert of the Atacama. Alexandre Arminjon uses a 4x5 camera, requiring a lot of meticulousness and patience for each shot, but but allowing him to obtain a great precision and a singular grain.
To the constraints of the environment are added those of the to the constraints of the environment are added those of the technique - 40 minutes on average are necessary for the preparation and the exposure time for each shot. The contrasts of light, volumes and and textures of these lunar landscapes are, thanks to the use of the the contrasts of light, volumes and textures of these lunar landscapes are, thanks to the use of the camera, particularly highlighted with large format prints.
Alexande Arminjon, in this immersive series, takes hold of the landscapes of the Atacama and models them in the image of her inner reality. The world becomes for the artist a raw material that he shapes, through the experimentation of the medium and the introspection, according to his personal abyss.
Solenn LAURENT - Polka Galerie