Sylvain Granjon: Genetically Modified Magic

Sylvain Granjon: Genetically Modified Magic by Aline SmithsonJanuary 18, 2018

©Sylvain Granjon, 2017, Photography Genetically Modified

“I was in the circus … until the accident”. That is a reasonable version of how Sylvain Granjon replied to my “tell me about yourself” question last summer in Arles. My heart soared with the prospect of pictures made by someone who has been communicating to a very different – non-photographic – audience; there was the possibility of magic. I want to make special mention of my encounter with him, whose reminded me that it’s delight that is at the heart of photography, and that is what engages me.” – W.M HUNT Halsted and Hunt (New York) Gallery Director, collector and author of “The Unseen Eye” (Aperture/Actes Sud)

Long before digital darkroom, photographers had their own ways of creating magic, surrealism, and new realities with montaged photographs, sometimes in the wet darkroom, and sometimes simply with a pair of scissors and some glue. Paris photographer, Sylvain Granjon, carries that tradition on with two new series, Photography Genetically Modified and Je suis né arc en ciel. We featured Sylvain’s charming project with his daughter some years ago, Douce Amère and this new work continues in the vein of play and transformation.

Born in 1971, Sylvain pursues the exploration of his fetishes after a first life as an actor and a circus artist. He is regularly exhibited in Europe (Spain, Norway, Serbia, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland) and participates in numerous festivals (Rencontres d’Arles, Fotofever, Photo Off, Festival Circulations, Le Voyage à Nantes, Encuentro de Imagen, Madrid Photo …) He works and live in Paris.

While taking varied forms, my work is indeed crossed by lines of force and obsessions: creative immersion in an imaginary universe, the complexity of our relationship to time, memory and childhood, self-representation and self-portraits. Humor and self-deprecation are an integral part of my artistic approach.

Very attached to a form of photographic craft, I almost exclusively uses photo-montage techniques, gluing, cutting and hand coloring. – Sylvain Granjon

©Sylvain Granjon, 2017, Photography Genetically Modified

Je suis né arc en ciel

In April 2014, I bought a trunk containing the things of a fair monster on the Biron market in Paris. The Rainbow Man. He had kept all the records of his life. The documents found deal with his childhood …- Sylvain Granjon