Philippe SEON

Freak encounters : "Praise to melancholy!" Philippe Séon lives and works in Paris. He evolves in the world of live shows and video since 1996 and began to take a serious interest in photography from April 2013. Following the footsteps of his grandfather, John Elmer, G.I. in the 29th Infantry Division of the American forces landed in Normandy more than seventy years ago, Philippe was bewitched by a field of bunkers! During the landing, John was shocked by the explosion of a shell and remained amnesic for several months. Afterwards, having found his memory, he was sent to Fontainebleau in convalescence and it was there that he had the opportunity, by dancing the waltz, to meet the little frenchwoman, Yvonne, who was to become his wife. He found matches to this vision in the literature, with writers such as Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert, or Pierre Boulle, the cinema, with Ridley Scott's Bladerunner, and the comics, with The Guardians of the Mazer of Frezatto, which constitute each of the elements important of his universe. They are used to create landscapes with a dreamlike atmosphere evoke the collapsed ramparts of an engulfed civilization, cathedrals balancing under a stormy sky, landscapes of solitude ... His photographic framing highlights the spectacular side of these buildings that have become obsolete and are doomed to disappear. Through the play of light, the shots and the shutter speed, Philippe Séon builds the universe that is clean. It highlights the poetry that emerges from these landscapes and become a "eulogy to melancholy". His retouching photos, very supported, find their inspiration in the style of some comic book authors, but also Flemish painters and amplify the hyperrealist and spectacular aspect of the image.