ANTHROPOMORPHS, photo series, begun in 2006.
By using specific techniques while shooting—whether outdoors techniques (framing, 90-degree rotation, sepia tones) or indoors techniques (photo in my studio)—I disrupt our perception. In this way, bell peppers, a winter landscape, and a swan take on the appearance of a human body, whether female or male.
Through extensive research, I repurpose différentes things to embody the human body. This creates a curious shift in perception: peppers appear sensual (*Venus in the Boudoir*, *Venus with Peppers*), a landscape becomes graphic (*Feminine Attributes*), and a swan takes on a virile quality (*Male Torso*).
My initial subject and my imagined subject merge within a single form: the imaginary is superimposed upon the real, creating a dual reading of the photograph. Thus:
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a winter landscape embodies a nude resembling both an X-ray and a woman's silhouette;
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a swan evokes a male torso;
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two peppers embody the statuette of a female nude;
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two peppers embody a female nude wading through the waters of a mountain stream.
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These photographs are designed to be both ambivalent and anthropomorphic.
As at first glance, the viewer does not know my intention, he is led to believe that he is making an anthropomorphic projection on these photos.
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Title: Bath of nature in winter
Series: Anthropomorphs
Year: 2025
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
This photograph depicts a nude, female or male, from behind, slowly advancing in the cold water of a torrent at dawn.
It is a distant evocation of bathing scenes that run through the history of painting: scenes where the human is first and foremost a body-object, beautiful, sensual and poetic. Here, there are no interior scenes, no Turkish baths, no realism. Just a fun way to do anthropomorphism, to show a "bell-peppers-body", without being crude.
I created this image in the studio using two peppers selected for their resemblance to human anatomy. I then decorated and lit the scene with several spotlights of different colors.
Title: Odalisque with Bell Peppers
Series: Anthropomorphs
Year: 2024
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
This photo embodies a statue, placed on a pedestal. More precisely a nude from behind, in a lascivious pose, with an elegant swaying of the hips.
This is the female "pendant" of a famous photo by Edward Weston: Pepper No. 30. For Weston, this photograph was "only a pepper". For me, it evokes the sensual and muscular torso of a bodybuilder. I propose, as "le pendant" to this photo, two peppers intentionally embodying the sensual and stocky body of a woman.
The deformity of this body (missing vertebrae), the central line that runs through it and the lascivious pose are a tribute to The Odalisque, the famous painting by Jean-Dominique Ingres.
Title: Venus with Bell Peppers
Series: Anthropomorphs
Year: 2024
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
This photo of two peppers embodies a statuette, placed on a base. More precisely a nude from behind, in a swaying pose. The red refers to the boudoir; the base refers to the sculpture of a statuette; the smooth and shiny skin of one of the peppers refers to ceramics. It is obviously a tribute to Edward Weston's pepper No. 31.
First, I looked for peppers that look like human body. Then, I cut these two peppers: one on the bottom, the other on the top. After, I superimposed them and fixed them on a base. I light the scene so as to enhance the shapes similar to a nude from behind, in a swaying pose. Then, with Photoshop, I transformed the colors into a sepia monochrome and I added a red decoration for hiding my spotlights to in the background.
Title: Venus in the boudoir
Series: Anthropomorphs
Year: 2024
Size: 20 x 30 to 100 x 150 cm
Technique: photography
Limited edition: 20 copies
This photo shows 2 peppers on white fur, like a human body, naked, from behind. Black and white photo, superposition of peppers and fur are enough to embody this imaginary nude in a boudoir.
We can also see 2 teeth (including a molar seen from above), flowers with large petals (like a tulip) or 2 large pearls from a necklace (in very close-up).
Title: Feminine attributes
Series: Anthropomorphic
Year: 2006
Dimensions : 30 x 90 cm
Technique: triptych, photo 1 of 3.
Limited edition of 20 copies
The landscapes of water being symmetrical, I knew that by dint of searching, I would find a landscape presenting several analogies with the female body. I chose this landscape because I saw there a body provided with all the female attributes: breasts, belly, hips, uterus and fallopian tubes. So I photographed this landscape so as to enhance my subject: front view, tight framing, 90 degree rotation, sepia photo ...
Title: Male torso
Series: Anthropomorphic
Year: 2006
Dimensions : 30 x 90 cm
Technique: triptych, photo 3 out of 3.
Limited edition of 20 copies
This photo shows the body of a swan like a male torso in profile: we can recognize the pectoral, deltoid, arm, forearm and curvature of the back.
Tight framing and 90 ° degree rotation is enough to give birth to a new image.
In the cold of winter, I tamed a swan long enough for it to stay close to me and accept that I approached to take this photo. If I had not observed swans in advance, then imagined that a swan could be seen as the torso of a man, I would never have been able to take this photo.