New Waves, 2021
Heat waves, floods, tornadoes, advancing of deserts… The disasters that populate our imagination and make us shiver with pleasure in science fiction scenarios are increasingly intruding into our reality. This series “New waves” is born out of this sense of confusion about how is treated the climate change issues and the various fears it raises. Many of us still find it hard to believe certain alarmist discourses that fail to really change our habits and priorities.
The world of tomorrow, that alarms scientists et threaten the future generations, inspired me these diptych photographs: on one side faces of children and teenagers –the ones who will suffer the consequences of our actions – , and on the other side desert landscapes, recalling the prehistoric or post-apocalyptic settings that I had liked to photographs in “Who would I Fear ? “ (2008-2011).
Loyal to the dreamlike dimension of my work and to my desire to preserve it from any political identities too define, I choose to keep a certain distance: despite the gravity of the subject, I wanted to preserve the poetic aspect of these photographs. Do not judge, but simply show.
« Danger » and « beauty »: a contradiction that I had in mind when producing this series and which reminds me of how, in recent years, we have been astonished by dangerously high summer temperatures while accommodating us. I also wanted to show the different attitudes of the youth: if some look defiant, others, on the contrary, are frightened. I didn’t want to show this ultra-combative youth that exists only in discourses and adverting.
My artistic work has always been an opportunity to explore another place, apart, the one of fiction, with all that it implies of doubts, imperfections and contradictions. In an era where art is used to educate, I like the idea of an independent and cluttered space where pleasures and fears are expressed without judgments or hierarchy.
Raphaël Neal
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