Thierry CLECH

"Travelling photographer Thierry Clech shows surprising acuity when it comes to capturing the essence of the towns he explores and gives us pictures that are spontaneous yet very complex and strikingly beautiful. Following in the footsteps of humanist photography, Thierry Clech's photographs are very good at capturing the wealth of information contained in a single instant, depicting scenes that are both characteristic of life in that particular location yet totally unique, marked as they are by the sense of passing time, the impermanence of all things and a certain melancholy asserted by the artist himself." Valerie Douniaux, Doctor in art history, specialized in photography and in Japanese contemporary art.

Thierry Clech is represented by art galleries in New York and London, and in France by ART WAY.

***

"What attracts me to photography is the idea of being able to record things. The ability to record in this way that came into being with photography and filmmaking is something that's quite unique and, after all, very recent in the history of art. (...)

It's difficult to define the dividing line between nature and nurture in one's artistic approach. I think you're more or less always dealing with the first years of your life: your childhood and adolescence, and their shortcomings and frustrations. Everything is decided within that short period and it remains a fundamental part of us. It's the raw material we draw on to express ourselves. (...)

I don't believe in progress in art. The question of whether we use analogue or digital methods, or claim to represent such and such a school of thought is merely a question of detail to be honest. Modern day photographers who use digital software to alter their pictures and copy, paste and place their characters in a different context are doing the same thing as prehistoric men did in their caves in the Dordogne in France, wondering where to position a mammoth and the hunter in the act of attacking it, and what scenery they should sketch in behind. We've come full circle...

The only thing that counts is to be able to produce pictures that are true to us."

Comment taken in by Philippe Reale for the magazine Focal Alternative (in March, 2011)