Éric Antoine

These new images are still created using the wet collodion process. The artist manages every step of this laborious technique himself, from preparing the chemicals from scratch through to the last layer of varnish. It is a very fragile alchemy that reveals a valuable enigmatic monotype: a combination of glass and photosensitive magic which gives birth to a delicate object. Once again, the photographer introduces us to his intimate world, a universe full of silvery reflections and isolated objects and individuals. Éric Antoine takes us on an introspective journey whilst reflecting on the individual’s place in a society sworn to excess. Black Mirror focuses on what we tend to neglect due to lack of time and stands against any form of sensationalism. Black Mirror celebrates beauty in its simplicity : the beauty of lonely individuals as well as the obsolete yet exceptional objects of everyday life. The photogra- pher plays with the different definitions of time: exposure time, period time, measuring time. Due to the use of large format, these photographs have the ambiguous flavour of tales that one has yet to complete. The choice of the wet collodion process is anything but mundane. Beyond the pleasure of reaching out to technical and aesthetic perfection, this process implies a chronological game between the origins of photography and contemporary images. Éric Antoine’s work is in permanent evolution. He consistently seeks to reach new horizons, on an intellectual level, as well as on an aesthetic one.