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Thomas Devaux
Born1980
Marcq-en-Barœul
NationalityFrench
OccupationPhotographer


Thomas Devaux (b. 1980, Marcq-en-Barœul) is a Paris-based artistic photographer.

Biography

Devaux became interested in photography at a young age. While studying film he experimented with several other mediums including photography, experimental filmmaking, painting and collages. His current work lies somewhere between photography and paintings, allowing him to pursue his research on sacred themes, profanity and isolation.[1]

In 2011, he won the Bourse du Talent #46 competition, organized by Photographie.com, Nikon, Picto, Herez and Bibliothèque Nationale de France.[2] That same year he was nominated for the “Prix Arte/Cutlog Art contemporain”.

In January 2012, filmmaker David Lynch exhibited Devaux's photos during the inauguration of his new Paris nightclub, Silencio.[3] For Le Figaro, "his portraits of women taken at fashion shows and art openings, which are then digitally reworked, have a timeless grace that denounces with elegance the ephemeral character of beauty. ... Madonnas damned for all eternity."[3]

His photographs are included in several collections, including Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). In 2013 Devaux's work was exhibited in South Korea, China, France, Belgium, Russia and Hong Kong. He was invited to present his work during the antiquity theatre soirées held during the last Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles 2013.[1]

Hong Kong Exhibition 2013: Thomas Devaux
Hong Kong Exhibition 2013: Thomas Devaux

Artistic process

In the words of Anne Biroleau-Lemagny, General Curator for 21st Century Contemporary Art Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF), "Thomas Devaux is the author of several ambitious and complex series in which so many fundamental values like evolution in photography come into play. The photography’s index value cannot be denied. It is indeed a direct shot but a shooting immediately considered as a fragment of a future reconstruction."[4] One of his ways of working involves taking simple photos of models at fashion shows in Paris or Milan, or indeed even pictures of regular visitors at the openings of contemporary art expositions, like at the FIAC and using them as raw materials. He transforms them thanks to digital editing software and making them barely recognizable.

According to French newspaper L'Express, he uses fashion and the art world to “recompose a universe filled with symbols”.[5]

For Yann Datessen, a photography & crafts professor at the Sorbonne, Devaux's characters are “ether beauties, flannel monstrosities, latescent Valkyries, patched-up ghosts that we sanctify and profane at the same time(...) Likes burned, worn-out, gone up in smoke, these new magnetic and electrified bodies have the boreal appearance of worrisome divinities. Hydras with furry tongues, spectral face, torsos with seven hands, female Cerberus, the bestial that Thomas evokes is filled with Dante-esque and Tararian metamorphoses..."[6]

Devaux's work plays on the textures, and articulates on the body’s erasing and reconstruction. This is a style that is his very own. It exists between the sacred and the profane.

Works

Exhibitions

Solo shows

Duo shows

Group shows

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b http://rencontres-arles-photo.tv/#thomas-devaux-attrition-au-theatre-antique
  2. ^ Roxana Traista. "Thomas Devaux". photographie.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  3. ^ a b Haloche, Laurence (13 January 2012). "Beauté criante, charme muet". Le Figaro.
  4. ^ ATTRITION Archived 2013-06-13 at the Wayback Machine par Anne Biroleau-Lemagny (Conservatrice Générale chargée de la photographie contemporaine du 21 siècle à la BNF)
  5. ^ Vignal, Marion (15 November 2011). "Thomas Devaux, serial photographer". L'Express.
  6. ^ Contre-Feux et Sutures par Yann Datessen Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine

External links

Authority control databases
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