Jean-Franþois Rauzier

As a fashion photographer in the 1970s Rauzier longed to break free from the constraints of advertising and film photography. With his ‘Hyperphotos’ he strove to capture “the panorama and the macro view all at once, to stop time and to have the possibility of viewing all the details of a static image”. Rauzier uses thousands of high-resolution close-ups views and stitches them into his large compositions, maintaining the focus and sharpness of the smallest detail. Rauzier carefully composes each work from elements and images he has collected over many years, working in some ways more like a painter than a photographer, creating his own supernatural man-made world. Using digital technology, he cuts, moves and constructs buildings, gardens, animals, and many other objects, carefully collected during long photographic sessions to inspire a new fantastic landscape, a capricious picture or a baroque masterpiece. He strives to transform the world according to his dreams, wishes and anxieties, and to recreate the magic and secrecy of ancient legends and stories using 21st century media.