After a long and successful career as a photojournalist, Jacques Pion left the well-trodden path of reportage behind and embarked on an introspective journey into the depths of the natural world at a slow and engaging pace.
The exhibition Intimus shows a selection of 12 works from the 45 that make up the series, 3 of which are unique thanks to a small portion of the photographic print being replaced with the corresponding negative placed on gold leaf.
After a long and successful career as a photojournalist, Jacques Pion left the well-trodden path of reportage behind and embarked on an introspective journey into the depths of the natural world at a slow and engaging pace.
For several years and in all seasons, he walked through the beech forest of Melogno in the Maritime Alps in Italy, completing an intense autobiographical journey and bringing back with him a mosaic of images: a universal fresco of the natural world; a flow of poetic and precious icons.
Jacques Pion describes this work as follows:
"My photographs are a form of personal introspection and an exploration of the inspiring spaces around me. They are a journey of self-discovery and an exchange with my surroundings, where I gradually merge with the place.
This series is the result of an intimate emotional connection, imbued with vulnerability. It is the gradual discovery of what illuminates our inner paths, but I leave it up to each of us to find our own way.
Through the use of analogue and digital techniques, I demonstrate that the barrier between reality and imagination has dissolved."
The project is accompanied by the artist's book Intimus, featuring texts by Maria Teresa Cerretelli and Roberto Cociancich. This limited edition comprises 30 numbered and signed copies, each one crafted by hand by Datz Edition in Seoul in 2024.
In the volume, Roberto Cociancich writes:
"Nothing is more foreign to us than the forest, yet nothing resembles us more. Nothing better describes the labyrinth of our inner life, the secrets of our hearts, the hidden desires of our minds, the web of our desires and regrets, and the web of our relationships and our convulsive desire for light in our souls.'
After travelling and exploring the world, Jacques Pion had the courage to enter the forest, look at it deeply, and allow himself to be seen in his intimacy."
