Mois de la photo 2010 Point information 5,7 rue de Fourcy 75004 Paris France
Espace Culturel Danois 142 avenue des Champs-Elysées Mº George V ou Étoile 75008 Paris France
Krass Clement (b. 1946) is one of the most remarkable and influential Danish photographers of his generation. All his photographs raise existential questions about the human condition; they deal with the feelings we have difficulty facing: loss, anxiety and solitude, and with those aspects of life we all try to keep at a distance. If Clement’s photographs affect us so deeply, it is not only because of his great visual talent, but also because of his ability to make these subjects accessible and immediate. This is perhaps because he actually speaks of himself. In some ways his photographic work could be seen as a type of self-portrait transposed into a world with which we are all familiar.
Clement spent a large part of his childhood in Paris and is greatly influenced by French culture. He started taking photographs at the age of 13, and although he took a degree in cinematography, photography remained his preferred artistic form of expression. His career started rather late with the exhibition and book Skygger af Øjeblikke (Shadows of Moments, 1978) and he has since published 18 photographic series and held countless exhibitions.
Based on the realism of documentary photography, Clement’s approach is to work on images as metaphors. He happily compares his photography to poetry, where a few words are enough to evoke memories or an entire inner world on the part of the reader. At the same time, he explores forms of narrative that photography make possible. He works on cinematographic sequences which almost imperceptibly lead the spectator into his narrative.
In recent years, Krass Clement’s work has sparked increased international interest. This is not only because of its unique status in modern photography, but also because his exploration of the existential foundations of the human condition remains constantly relevant.
The exhibition at the Maison du Danemark will present a series of major photographic pieces, in particular Ved Døden (About Death), Hvor ingen talte (Where nobody spoke), Drum et sted i Irland (Drum a place in Ireland), Et Danmarksbillede på Storebælt (An image of Denmark on the Great Belt), Et Novemberrejse (A November Trip), as well as some recent photographs from his latest project on changing Denmark.
