Éric Petr

The blacks are to the quantum vacuum what light is to matter.

[Photograph 0x10DC6004 Éric Petr (2015), published in Spirituelles Odyssées by Éditions Corridor Éléphant]

Light is not always, in my work, the source of its own presence.

It is also a reflection on light that leads me to construct images which, through its absence, summon it—confronting us with the void.

It is then through deep blacks that light is revealed, just as our eyes adjust and begin to restore its presence in the fleeting emergence of forms shaped by our minds.

Life today tends to steer us toward images that are easy to read—requiring no effort to understand or interpret.

Yet, as Gustave Flaubert once said: “To make something interesting, you simply have to look at it long enough.”

My images ask the viewer to linger.

Look at them attentively. They will reveal their secret to you.

There are many layers of interpretation, offering multiple meanings.

The photographs are taken in such a way that shapes and silhouettes appear to shift, affected by our retina. Details change depending on the viewing angle or the focus of our gaze.

Perception, then, varies according to our way of looking, the light in the room, the attention or concentration we bring, and the state of mind we find ourselves in when facing the image.