French artist, Jean-Christophe Béchet, is invited to share in this exclusive Viewing Room his latest work, entitled “Sediments of Matter” through which he explores the medium of photography and questions its materiality. These images, both figurative and abstract, traditional and innovative, old and new, act as a fusion of the three major periods of photography: the 19th century glass plate, the 20th century silver gelatin print and the 21st century digital technology. This work gives us a glimpse at what could be called the post-photography era.

Each artwork is unique. Jean-Christophe Béchet uses a mixed technique: silver gelatin black and white print and color archival pigment print from 1900-1905 glass plates scans. Every prints come unframed with a format of 20 x 25 cm (7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in) and are signed, dated 2020 and numbered 1/1 at verso.

“Everything started when I discovered
my great grand-father’s photographic glass plates.”

“I needed to better understand how the technical and chemical evolution of photography influenced its own aesthetic.”

“Creating these unique pieces, I’ve tried to make two eras of photography dialogue.”

Born in 1964 in Marseille, Jean-Christophe Béchet has been living and working in Paris since 1990. Mixing black and white and colour, silver and digital, 24x 36 and medium format, polaroids and photographic "accidents", Jean-Christophe Béchet looks for the "right tool" for each project, the one that will allow him to create a relevant dialogue between an interpretation of reality and photographic material. His photographic work develops in two directions that constantly intersect and respond to each other. On the one hand, his approach to reality makes him close to a form of "poetic documentary" with a permanent interest in "street photography" and urban architecture. In parallel, for more than fifteen years, he has been developing a research on the photographic material and the specificity of the medium, both in film and digital. To do this, he focuses on technical "accidents", and revisits his photographs of reality by confronting them with several printing techniques. He restores, beyond the shooting, this work on light, time and chance which are according to him, the three basics of the photographic act. For 20 years, this double view of the world has been built book by book, the space of the printed page being his "natural" terrain of expression. He is the author of more than 20 monographic books. His photographs are present in several private and public collections and have been shown in more than sixty exhibitions, notably at the Rencontres d'Arles 2006 ("Politiques Urbaines" series) and 2012 ("Accidents" series) and at the Mois de la Photo in Paris, in 2006, 2008 and 2017.

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