Photographer Benoît Drouet, Winner of Rencontres Photographiques Contest, Exhibits at PCA

On the occasion of Rencontres Photographiques, PCA is proud to host Instantanuits, an exhibition of work by Benoît Drouet, one of the winners of the Rencontres Photographiques Contest. The show is curated by PCA Photography students Adam Wilkinson, Isabella Puiatti and Keegan Keene, as well as the PCA Photography Department Chair Klaus Fruchtnis.

Benoît Drouet started photographing at an early age, so his passion for image is not happenstance. He sees the world through a metaphorical and esthetic eye and thus seizes the beauty of metropolitan atmospheres.

Adam Wilkinson, PCA Senior Student in Photography, on Benoît’s work:

Benoît Drouet’s Instantanuits can be read as a couple of things: a vaguely recalled dream populated by unknown characters, a fuzzy set of images in which form and shape become pleasantly irrelevant, or a dozen out-of-focus shots culled together and exhibited for Art’s sake. Whatever the consensus, all three entry-points run contrary to Photography’s mythical function – to tell the truth.

Within the realm of truth-telling, let us consider Drouet’s photographs as a kind of half-truth since detail and clarity are blurred by his lens. But our imaginations hungrily, gratefully pick up the slack here and, as it were, “sharpen” in the facts. The less we perceive in the photographs, the more we freely inhabit the dense spaces.

But Drouet the artist is not concerned with the discourse on truth and facts in Photography. Instantanuits could just as well be his antithesis to all the fuss. His images revel in an atmosphere of abandon into the wee hours of darkness when we would rather not think about what tomorrow might bring but instead of how best to just disappear into the night.

Note that Instantanuits is preceded by a Pecha Kucka with Benoît Drouet and PCA Photo Faculty Members Nico Silberfaden, Ryan Boatright, Gabriel Jones at 18:00 PM in the Auditorium. Each photographer will have 10 minutes to present their work, with a series of five images only.

Instantanuits
Paris College of Art
15 Rue Fénelon | 75010 Paris
Opening Reception Tuesday, November 3 | 19:30
Opening Hours November 3 – 20, 14:00 | 19:00
Join by signing up for the Facebook event

Pecha Kucka
Tuesday, November 3 | 18:00 – 19:30
PCA Auditorium
15 Rue Fénelon | 75010 Paris