#benoitpaille

“ photography doesn’t capture reality; it creates reality. It’s an active agent. Flashes of neon blue, green, and pink are injected into his surroundings, approaching the effect of a psychotropic drug, and form another world that is surreal and at the same time just as real as the one that surrounds us. In reimagining these territories—the geography around him and the scenery of his mind—his photos question all that we’ve inherited: private property, the omnipresence of borders, the overconsumption of prescription drugs, corrupt publicity, the cult of tourism. He is especially interested in objects—poles, fences, walls, barbed wire. “I find it fascinating to ascribe value to a pole just through lighting and framing. It’s my way of questioning the stories we’re told.” In this way he surpasses kitsch to find the radiance of life. Benoit works with a compact camera and a hot-shoe flash, and chooses colors haphazardly. Initially, the aim of the colored flashes was to destroy the landscape, to impose himself into it. Now, the point is to artificialize it, to render it unnatural. Benoit does not spend time and money on set-up and direction; he doesn’t hire models. “When I take a picture of a pole and aestheticize it,” he says. “I’m making a mockery of this constant spectacle.” benoit paille