statement

Since 25 years, Jean-Philippe Krief, pioneer of photovoltaic engineering and photographer, travels the world.

He received his love of photography and his taste for argentic images from his father. A precious legacy that he has never ceased to renew during his travels, about which he reports, in his “photographic notebooks”. A corpus of black and white clichés as close as possible to his moods, which is presenting the sociology of our contemporary world.

Krief likes to say that “the sensuality of the subject and his visual treatment – constitute the basement of his photographic work”. Evidenced by the material of his images, granular, almost tactile, which is the result of a specific technical choice: the use of a highly sensitive film (the 3200 from Ilford) allows him to photograph his subjects without flash or artificial lighting, taking advantage of the plastic and emotional possibilities of so-called “natural” light.

His erratic gaze explores the world, portrays men with a special attention to the passage of time, and the visible traces that it leaves on bodies, sets and faces. The inert material, the everyday object or the urban architecture, less present than the human figure, are nevertheless treated with the same sensitivity.

In Krief’s work, the agitation of bodies is rare. The photographer is interested rather in figuring rest, appeasement, relaxation, even stasis. Paradoxically, this is how he captures the movement of men and societies. His sense of documentary observation as well as quasi-pictorial composition also makes the singularity of his images.