Didier Massard

Didier Massard was born in Paris in 1953.  Massard had attend the University of Paris where he received his degree in art and archeology in 1975.  He began his career as a still photographer for cosmetic and fashion labels.  Some of these labels included big names like Chanel, Hermes and Cartier.  He continued his commercial career for twenty-five years until the unveiling of his series, “Imaginary Journeys,” which took ten years to complete.  This was the start of his artistic career.

No longer working in the commercial world, Massard realizes imaginary scenes and then fabricates these images in his studio.  More closely resembling a painting or digital art, his photographs consists of carefully constructed dioramas and purposeful lighting techniques.  The sets are constructed to be sense through the lens of a camera.  Each of these photos can take months to create.  On an average Massard only completes about two to three images a year. 

  Within Massard’s work, he evokes sort of a romantic and touristic idealism which draws from the audience’s collective experience with ‘nationality and place.’  Each photo, he declares is “the completion of an imaginary journey.”  His work has the intent to bring life into inanimate materials.  This he proclaims is the opposite of what most photography tries to accomplish which ‘freezes a moment.’  Massard’s photographs are the realization of the imaginary from reality and the bordering of a truth and lie.         










                  

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