Edition 2012

2011 prizewinner of the ‘BMW residence at the musée Nicéphore Niépce’

Alexandra Catiere

Here, beyond the haze

The fact that Alexandra Catiere’s career knows no national borders is evidence of her urge to reach towards the universal. From the former Soviet Union and back to France by way of the United States, this young photographer has made timelessness one of the major aspects of her creative work. Her images are a throwback to a humanist tradition of sensations and atmospheres that she captures with unswerving success. Without ever staying exclusively within the genres of portraiture or reportage, Alexandra uses the camera as the instrument of her empathy for human nature and for life. As prizewinner of the first ‘BMW Residence at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce’, Alexandra Catiere exhibits here the work she did at the museum in Chalon-sur-Saône as well as images from before that period. For three months in the autumn of 2011 she was able to conduct personal work inspired by the city, its people and objects. She did not restrict herself to any one theme or genre or technique but followed the promptings of the moment, a chance encounter or the light. The photos on display and those in the book which has been published to coincide with the Rencontres d’Arles can be read in two ways. By themselves, they stir our imagination and encourage us towards a mental continuation of the story. Taken together, they make up a frieze which through its timeless universality makes us aware of our destiny as humans, our urge to resist the passage of time. ‘We can conceive that our existence is without interest but we cannot conceive of ourselves as non-existent. This is what photogra- phy brings us. It gives us proof of a destiny, a sense of where we are from. Reality, captive of the sheet of paper, extends into eternity the time of a self that has already lived and gives it the form of a personal and naturally private dream’, François Cheval. ‘Alexandra Catiere’s sensitive photography displays a tension between the frozen moment and an energy on the point of explosion’,

François Hébel.

Curators: François Cheval, head curator at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce and François Hébel, director of the Rencontres d’Arles.
Exhibition produced by BMW with the support of the Musée Nicéphore Niépce.
Prints by the artist and the Atelier Choi, Paris.
Framing by the Musée Nicéphore Niépce and Circad, Paris.
Exhibition venue: Salle Henri Comte.

  • Institutional partners

    • République Française
    • Région Provence Alpes Côté d'Azur
    • Département des Bouches du Rhône
    • Arles
    • Le Centre des monuments nationaux est heureux de soutenir les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles en accueillant des expositions dans l’abbaye de Montmajour
  • Main partners

    • Fondation LUMA
    • BMW
    • SNCF
    • Kering
  • Media partners

    • Arte
    • Lci
    • Konbini
    • Le Point
    • Madame Figaro
    • France Culture