The Gallery

The French term plasticien, referring to the larger notion of arts plastiques or visual arts, suggests a form of photographic representation that does not seek simply to reproduce the world before us. Arts plastiques, often considered in contrast to beaux-arts (fine arts), departs from this latter term defined often as the formal search for classical notions of beauty, by instead exploring an esthetic through more experimental means, in a search for the splendor of line, form, shape, and color, but also through the respect of the physical photographic object itself. Photographie plasticienne is therefore a collection of artworks that present something beyond a single captured scene: the moment of the shot, the selection of the image by the artist, the manipulation of its size and form, its retouching, photomontage, print, mise en scène, mount and framing, all work together to create the complete photographic artwork. In the context of works represented by Images de Fer, large-scale and full-color prints are especially favored.

In broader terms, the emergence of this movement, often situated towards the latter part of the 1970s and into the 1980s, coincides with the technological revolutions of the photographic medium. The introduction of the digital camera, coupled with the gradual acceptance of colored, and later digital, photography in more traditional art markets in the latter quarter of the twentieth century, have led to the complete transformation of the status of the photographic image. Signed by the artist, and sold in limited series, the digital photograph has earned its place as a genre of its own merit.