Until August 4, at the Tiers-Ordre chapel in Perpignan, the City’s Culture Department is presenting “Pics”, the photography exhibition by Didier Van Der Borght: a surprising dive into the heart of cacti and succulents.
In the P.-O, there are cacti. It is impossible not to see them. Didier Van Der Borght, himself, took a liking to photographing them as well as succulents. And when you look at them from afar, you absolutely cannot imagine what you can see up close!
This is the originality of this exhibition, which is entirely digital. The shots are real, always in natural light and outdoors. Didier Van Der Borgh has just accentuated the characteristics of these plants with unusual cropping, a bit of macro, the search for detail, in order to give a particular vision of them. “At first, I wanted a scientific approach. I studied a lot about these species, he explains. But, probably because of my background as a fashion photographer, I need there to be an aesthetic dimension. For the color, I was inspired by medical imaging.”. Aesthetic dimension, that’s an understatement. Absolutely fantastic! Each image is an enigma. Hyper organic materials but… are they still plants? Viruses perhaps? Insects? Aliens? HR Giger would not have denied certain photos… The work on textures is amazing: velvety, hairy, smooth, silky, matte, shiny… Didier Van der Borght has also cultivated the graphics of yuccas, among others, in “Soulages” pleats.
This exhibition includes a second series focusing on decline, particularly in the agave, which, although it only flowers once, does not die. “These are extraordinary plants that resist everything!soulful Didier Van Der Borght. Here, I wanted to evoke precisely the notion of survival, of the end of time, and show that it can also be beautiful.”. Here again, remarkable graphic work which recalls the engravings of the 19th century: “Like in the books of Jules Verne”. And the photographer, who is fond of pareidolia, did not hold back.
“Today, my path is more that of a visual artist who uses photography rather than a photographer who tries to make art photos, he specifies. I always start from the concept, not from the image. I find a subject and I try to divert it. So that we no longer know if it comes from reality or a pure creation.. PICS is a stunning illustration of this.
