Objets photographiques Sébastien Reuzé

photographs mounted on aluminum, under crystal glass
20 pieces, 11.7 x 7.5 cm, 11 pieces, 10 x 15 cm,
1 piece, 20.5 x 14.5 cm, 1 piece, 11.7 x 32 cm

“While the connection extends to the format of daguerreotypes or projection plates, Sébastien Reuzé turned to playing cards to create a hands-on object with a playful reference.”

However, whether held in the hand or hung on the wall, the Photographic Objects fall more into the category of a precious object. The glass with its rounded edges creates a display case comparable to those in which daguerreotypes were once presented. The presentation device produces a particular effect on the perception of the image it encloses. The unique light-absorbing and light-refracting properties of crystal glass lend the image a luminosity that seems to radiate from within the image itself, giving it a distinctive depth, almost like a very subtle relief effect.

Sébastien Reuzé’s approach involves an exploration of the medium that takes into account the physical and plastic nature of photography and the various ways it can be displayed. Photographic Objects emphasizes a factor that has long been overlooked in the history of photographic images: the medium itself. In fact, daguerreotype plates and other metal substrates, as well as glass plates (negatives or positive projection plates) from the 19th and early 20th centuries, were thick and heavy; they required manual handling to view the image properly and transformed photographs into tangible objects. “For Sébastien Reuzé, choosing the term ‘photographic objects’ is therefore a way of highlighting the physicality of the image—linked to its three-dimensional medium—which paper prints have caused us to forget.”