Ben Dauchez - Orientalist #1

Format 50X50 Unframed,

Thought of as a travel notebook page, the work takes as starting point an original photograph by Ben Dauchez on which elements are added that extend and transform the image. These interventions compose a narrative between memory, observation and imagination. In an approach inspired by Orientalism, the photograph thus becomes the support for a personal evocation of travel, where the real blends with daydream.

Format 50X50 Unframed,
Ben Dauchez works on his original photograph like a page of a travel notebook. Writings, graphic motifs and fragments of documents are superimposed on the image, enriching the scene with traces and suggested stories. The blacks, ochres and patinated reds evoke a material marked by time.
From Orientalist inspiration, this composition mixes photographic gaze and imagination of travel. Through a play of accumulations and erasures, it transforms the photographed moment into a recomposed memory, meeting reality and daydream.

Passionate about photography from a young age, Ben DAUCHEZ began in the neighborhood studios of La Rochelle. There he acquired all the basics of photography—from classic technique, to shooting and retouching, through the laboratory. At 22, freshly graduated, he moved to Paris to complete his training by becoming a set assistant for the Daguerre studios, Le Petit Oiseau va sortir and Studio Zéro. He had the chance to collaborate with and assist then some of the most talented photographers: Bettina RHEIMS, Patrick DEMARCHELIER, Terry RICHARDSON, Ellen VON UNWERTH, Marcus MAM... From some decisive encounters will be born fine projects and long collaborations, notably with André RAU, Bettina RHEIMS (the sultry exhibition INRI and its eponymous book at Editions Albin Michel) and Peter BEARD (Pirelli calendar 2009 in Botswana).
His photos are published, among others, by Condé Nast Editions (French and international), Première, WallPaper, ID, Madame Figaro, Lifestyles, Dandy Magazine... His universe also interests brands with very different identity codes for which he has signed the realization of institutional and/or advertising campaigns such as Dior (beauty), L'Oréal, Peugeot, Philip Morris or Burger King (Advertising awarded at Dubai Lynx).

Ben DAUCHEZ has also produced numerous portraits of celebrities (IGGY POP, Woody ALLEN, Grace JONES, Jean DUJARDIN, Gilles LELLOUCHE, Olivier MARCHAL, Carole BOUQUET, Charlotte GAINSBOURG, ...) of beauty, of world men (Olivier DASSAULT, Jacques SEGUELA...) and of travelers...
This photographic path has allowed him since then to immortalize with total freedom the human beauty, aesthetic and spiritual of each personality.