Serge Clément

biography

Serge Clément was born in Quebec (Canada) in 1950. He lives and works in Montreal.

He began his photographic career in the 1970s, alternating between commercial and personal work.
Practising a photography of questioning, research and author, he works on reflections and light games. Serge Clément invents confusing images with deep mystery and delicate poetry, which respond to each other.

His approach ranges from documentaries to installations, social commentaries, poetic narratives and photographic essays. His work illustrates a perfect ability to lose us between reality and fiction.

Since 1993, he has devoted himself exclusively to artistic photography and his works have been exhibited in many countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

He has received many grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. In 2012, he received the Prix à la création artistique from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for his film d’aurore (2011) at the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois. It is part of major institutional and private collections in Canada, France, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Series

Sutures, 2002

Serie | Enter a city by its folds, its graffiti, its daily insights, its secrets, what remains hidden under the leaves. Enter a city by its wastes, its remains, what was abandoned in the street ...

Cinq heures du matin, 2002

Series | A tribute to that fleeting instant when everything is about to turn upside-down.

Serge Clément séries

Courants-Contrecourants, 2002

Serie | Serge Clément's photographs appear as the memory of an intercontinental (American-European) dialogue ...

Serge Clément séries

Sutures, 2002

Serie | Enter a city by its folds, its graffiti, its daily insights, its secrets, what remains hidden under the leaves. Enter a city by its wastes, its remains, what was abandoned in the street ...

Serge Clément séries

Cinq heures du matin, 2002

Series | A tribute to that fleeting instant when everything is about to turn upside-down.

Serge Clément séries

Courants-Contrecourants, 2002

Serie | Serge Clément's photographs appear as the memory of an intercontinental (American-European) dialogue ...

Serge Clément séries

Sutures, 2002

Serie | Enter a city by its folds, its graffiti, its daily insights, its secrets, what remains hidden under the leaves. Enter a city by its wastes, its remains, what was abandoned in the street ...

Serge Clément séries

Cinq heures du matin, 2002

Series | A tribute to that fleeting instant when everything is about to turn upside-down.

Serge Clément séries

Courants-Contrecourants, 2002

Serie | Serge Clément's photographs appear as the memory of an intercontinental (American-European) dialogue ...

videos

L’envol du ciel, 2013
—
short film of 3.37 min.
produced by Serge Clément, May 2013
music DJ Champion : L’envol du ciel from the album : 1
direction, editing and photography: Serge Clément

D’aurore, 2009
—
The photographs were taken at dawn in twelve cities on four continents at the beginning of the 21st century.
d’aurore – film of 16 minutes / photographs, editing and direction: Serge Clément
sound design: Olivier Calvert

Parfum de Lumière, 2002
—
His many photographic explorations in Hong Kong and Shanghai have led Serge Clément to combine the Chinese metropolises, first in a book titled Fragrant Light, and now in this animated version for the National Film Board of Canada. This fragrant light in a revolving diamond-shaped bottle takes us through space and time, over a reinvented urban landscape where Hong Kong shows the way to Shanghai, while the photographer’s inner city gives us a glimpse of the 21st century metropolises. But this is not history, it’s a story where light and shadows fight for territory on shifting battlefields, his and ours. Film without words.

Interviews

Serge Clément
Le Petit Bulletin
—
Interview by Jean-Emmanuel Denave, 2015

On the occasion of his exhibition in Lyon at the Le Réverbère gallery, Canadian photographer Serge Clément looks back at his career, his aesthetic biases and his passion for the city as a fantastical space for diffraction from reality.

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Le paysage dépaysé
Swing
—
Interview by Agathe LaTuque, 2015

Interview conducted as part of his exhibition, Dépaysé, at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. Intimate glances on photography, the territory, France and its complex and multiple influences.

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Serge Clément
ActuPhoto
—
Interview by Emilie Lemoine, 2014

Meeting with Canadian photographer Serge Clément on the occasion of his exhibition Dépaysé at the Centre Culturel Canadien in Paris, which condenses forty years of unpublished works in black and white. This exhibition is part of the “Au coeur de l’intime” section of the Mois de la Photographie.

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Books