Philippe Gronon photographs objects head-on, on a 1:1 scale and with a concern for mimetic exactness. He questions the making of images by taking as a basis the primary definition of photography: it reproduces reality in an image obtained by means of a device that focuses light on a photosensitive surface. His photography aims to be descriptive and objective, intended to be a direct copy of things. Yet the extracted image, often cropped, flattened and without depth or vanishing point, creates an imperceptible shift. Gronon’s work is based on a strict protocol that is applied to each of his series without exception. He is interested in the surfaces of inscriptions, in technical and scientific objects, dealing with the preservation of knowledge and values, or – as in his series Versos – in the hidden side of artworks. Choosing to reflect on the history of the medium, Gronon documents the equipment used specifically for image production: printing frames, developing trays, lithographic stones and scanner plates. These images have an undeniable pictorial character. Often achieved without the use of a camera, they take consideration of the paradoxical relationship between the image and reproduction to its very limits.

Philippe Gronon was born in 1964 in Rochefort-sur-Mer. He lives and works in Paris.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of ABICA, the Minerva Kunststiftung and the Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art. In parthership with la Nuit de la Photo de La Chaux-de-Fonds.