Journalist and photographer, Baptiste Levrier develops his photographic work around the deconstruction of pictorial universes, technical experimentation and visual experience. Using alternative and artisanal processes, he provokes photographic accidents and offers sensitive images, full of reverie and open to everyone's interpretations. Much more than a quest for the perfect moment or the ideal light, it is the dilution of meaning in favor of sensation that guides his work. The Colector selection presents a series of photos taken in Biarritz, its ever-changing lights, the magnetic presence of the ocean.

Can you introduce us to the selection of your works available at Colector?

These photos are from a long-term series on the city of Biarritz. I wanted to put aside the postcards to let myself drift off at random during walks and reveal a sensitive Biarritz, never frozen, which leaves an impression, the elusive one of time passing. The ocean, the mountains, the architecture, the sky, the inhabitants, the visitors, each playing, depending on the time of year, the time of day, with this Biarritz that we talk about so much but that we really see very little.

What would you like your works to inspire in those who discover them?

I like it when I see a gaze get lost and thoughts get absorbed by a photo and we let ourselves wander to offer ourselves a suspended moment. I try to open doors through visions open to interpretations so that everyone can make them their own. My photos are moving, conducive to reverie and live with the light that hits them, the times of day, the angles.

Who are your major artistic influences?

They include great classical references such as impressionist painting, the abstract expressionism of a Rothko, which translate directly into my work. But also humanist photography or photojournalism which are indirect sources of inspiration, just like the humor of Martin Parr, the provocation of Jurgen Teller, the photo experiments of Aaron Siskind, Man Ray…

© Kevin Metallier