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Christophe Canato Ricochet 2013,
metallic paper, archival pigment print |
Christophe Canato’s photographs of boys are not so much portraits as psychological portrayals of the developmental stage that follows infancy and precedes adolescence. These human subjects are complemented by photographs of inanimate forms and structures: dead animals, a bivouac den, a handkerchief containing a tooth and a couple of buttons. Objects that fascinate the mind of a boy but retain little interest for the busy grownup. In this way the artist sets up a dialogue between the adult viewer and the half-remembered period of childhood his photographs evoke.
Shot against a black background with lighting reminiscent of that illuminating the subjects of Renaissance painting, the images are rich and dark. This marks an interesting counterpoint to his previous body of work, Women of Jerusalem, which presented elderly women using high-key lighting and a pure white backdrop. Where that work cast an almost forensic eye on aging as metaphor for the tolls of responsibility and cultural expectation, the new work emerges from an enigmatic obscurity that suggests the uncertain promises of things yet to come.
These photographs are brought together under the title of Ricochet, alluding to the uncertain trajectory of pre-p ubescent boyhood. But, as the artist knows from his own upbringing, in France ‘ricochet’ also refers to the pastime of skimming flat pebbles across a still patch of water; a trick that defies the expectation that a stone should always plummet to the bottom. It is these ideas of uncertainty and mystery that bind the series together.
Text by Alasdair Foster, curator, writer and consultant working on projects that build intercultural connections, especial in the Pacific region. He was the founding director of Fotofeis, Europe’s largest photo festival in the 1990s, Director of the Australian Centre for Photography (1998-2011) and Managing Editor of Photofile magazine (1998-2008).
