Thomas Lang is a French photographer whom began his artistic
career by basically exploring all that he could like the theater, web, cinema
and animal documentaries. It was not until 2008 when he decided to specialize
as an independent photographer. Although his primary focus is mostly commercial
photography, his travels have led him to work with different cities and
observe/capture the interaction that each city has with its inhabitants and
visitors. Lang explores the world of fine art photography by going through the analogue
methods versus digital. By using film, he reimagines the tradition of a contact
sheet through his series Gestalts, a German word that translates to
“shape” in English. By using the layout of the contact sheet, Lang captures a
single subject that has been then broken into a mosaic-like compositions of 36
images or creating fractured versions of the subject.
This
entire process is extremely meticulous and Lang achieves it beautifully. The
development of one image, he had to anticipate the distribution of the frame on
the contact sheet and determine the angle he had to take for each of the 36
photographs, as well as the order in which he had to realize his shots. Everything
had to be planed beforehand, for if he failed at one point, the final composition
would not seem as cohesive. This is where the human brain is quite impressive. Individually,
each exposure is its own abstracted element but when placed correctly together,
despite the few deliberate distortions, our brain takes in this optical
illusion and manages to create a real and cohesive “shape”. Similar to Patrick-Bailly-Maître-Grand’s
periphotography within his series Fromol’s
Band, Lang creates an almost cylindrical motion throughout his images as
the viewer is allowed to observe the scene or subject from multiple angles
through construction and a deconstruction which our minds partake.
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| Gestalt series |
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| Gestalt series |
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| Gestalt series |
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