Soie Posted On 28th May 2024 To Magazine & Stories
Use Of Elegant Black and White
Since 2014, Angélique Boissière has been exploring film photography through medium format, which she likes for its square framing, and thus to get reacquainted with an art that calls to her from her teenage years. With a classical artistic background nurtured through her practice of dance and her affinity for Impressionist and Romantic imagery, the feminine nude came up as an obviousness, given the immutable place it takes in the western Art History. It is with the same aim of universality that the photographer flourishes through the use of elegant black and white.
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Free and Spontaneous
In the early stages of her art, Angélique discover herself through self-portraiture. Which, if at the start was only a convenient means to explore the craft of photography, now evolved into an exploratory dimension of the artist in which she finds herself more free and spontaneous than in sessions with models. Indeed, her self-portraits approach an introspective photography which seeps in daily life. In this realm, she invents and reinvents herself as her inspiration surges goes by and the resulting pictures question reality: where is the limit that keeps apart the photographer from her character, the woman from the artist, the pure aesthetic subject from her reflection?
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To Preserve
In contrast, the shootings with models defines as a more thoughtful process, requiring meticulous attention to composition and mastery of lighting. While the human element lies at the core of Angélique Boissière’s work, it is through the simplicity and authenticity of her captures that it is elevated, devoid of artifice. The eye is acquainted with the emerging entity, dressed or unveiled, without ever compromising the intention to preserve its inherent naturalness.
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Soie
To grant us a glimpse of these beauties captured in their essence, the artist has meticulously conceived and designed two self-published books: Marées (2018 – republished in 2020) dedicated to four years of seaside snapshots featuring multiple wistful portraits bathed in natural light; and Soie (2021) that gathers not only nudes and portraits, but also intricate details and landscapes in a more personal monograph.
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The Analog Process
As much an artist as a craftswoman, Angélique takes part in all the steps involved in the creation of picture: the photographer develops herself her exposed film that she then reworks digitally to imbue it with its distinctiveness. The analog process is fully embraced by the wish to accompany, throughout the various processes, the imagined picture, its physical medium, and then its ultimate realization. Beyond the usage of a camera, the artist is on with this extension that often embodied by a Pentax 67 or a Rolleiflex, being an integral part of droves of her self-portraits.
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Images ©Angélique Boissière
About The Author
Angélique Boissière
Born to a mother who was a painter, Angélique Boissière (b. 1992, Nantes, France) was immersed in an artistic culture from an early age. As a truly aesthete, she studied literature and applied arts, graduating as a graphic designer. Apart from these studies, she has been taking photographs since she was a teenager.
In 2014, she decided to focus exclusively on silver-based photography, with many inspirations in mind: Sally Mann, Francesca Woodman and some of the great names in haute-couture, such as Paolo Roversi and Helmut Newton.
She shows us her vision of elegance that cannot be dated. She simply conveys a certain conception of beauty, without the pretension of elaborating a rational theoretical discourse. Her favourite subjects are nudes and black-and-white portraits in a timeless recognisable world.
She has self-published two books: Marées(Tides) in 2018 and Soie(Silk) in 2021.
Angélique is now working on documentary series, as well as new formats such as 4×5 large format cameras and platinum prints. She is also working on her next book, on the theme of self-portraits.