Guylaine Couttolenc
Statement
From a very young age, coexistence with nature has been a very important pillar in my life. It has been my companion and my refuge. This, thanks to my parents with whom we camped countless times in locations devoid of any sort of civilization, whether it be on beaches or in mountains.
I learned from my father to love and cohabit with nature through the joy, respect, and care for our environment. He was an avid camper and had a strong spirituality. For him, nature was everything.
From my mother, I learned to observe, to contemplate, and to marvel at the aesthetics of nature. She was a well-known sculptor who transferred this contemplation to her own artistic development. She studied deeply the geometry and organic forms of different aspects of nature to create her imposing monumental sculptures that have transcended worldwide intervening spaces in different countries such as Canada, the United States, China, England among others.
From this inheritance, the organic and perfect forms of nature have always accompanied me, consciously and unconsciously. I have a strong visual background.
Photography has always been for me a discipline of artistic expression and a vehicle that helps me to stop to contemplate and observe my environment thus achieving a deep assimilation of what surrounds me.
KALIA, beauty in Greek, is a visual tribute to the perfection of the small natural treasures that surround us but sometimes go unnoticed in our rushed everyday lives. Through light, contrast, and finding a certain angle to find its amazing organic forms, I was able to capture its beauty and transform it into majesty.
Through large and medium format prints, I invite the viewer to pause and observe the minimum as the maximum expression of nature, thus admiring this spectacle that surrounds us.
Kalia series, 2024
(click on any of these images to see larger thumbnails)