© Pierre Winther
acte2galerie 41 rue d'Artois 75008 Paris France
Pierre Winther was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1964. In 1985 the young, self-taught photographer headed for Paris to seek inspiration and pursue an idea. Ever since, he has carried out ambitious photo shoots throughout the world. He was shooting for top editorial publications, such as The Face, iD, Vogue, Elle, Spin, Flaunt, Vibe and more and creating several world-wide advertising campaigns, among others for Dunhill, Diesel, Levi's, Hugo Boss, Nike, JVC, that have achieved iconic status around the world and won numerous awards. One of the most talked-about subjects is the man riding a tiger shark from a levi ?s shoot.
Winther is the key artist for cinematic storytelling. With all variety in his subjects, there is a narrative constant that transcends the static motif. Whether it’s the innocent man with the bomb-belt, the Japanese women with their messed-up make-up ona double bed, or simply the protagonist staring into the camera lens, as if he wanted to say : «I’ve got a suprise for you!»- the photo artist’s works appear to be details from a larger picture, which the observer can only try to imagine.
© Pierre Winther
The motifs only nurture our curiosity. It’s about those moments that are one step ahead of our imagination, tragicomically imbued with black humor and the grotesque emotionality of naÏveté or eroticism in a violent environment. Pierre Winther challenges and deconstructs value systems and brings the starkest contrasts together, as if they had always belonged that way. The most dramatic events often unfold with a seeming casualness in the background, taking irritation and provocation to extremes.
With this contents, Pierre Winther’s striking visual vocabulary acts like oil poured into a flame. As an artist who acts not only as a photographer, Pierre Winther leaves no detail to chance and decides concept, cast, and location, to name just a few. He frequently finds his distinctive over-acting amateur protagonists in street castings. And the name Pierre Winther stands for selective over-staging in other ways as well : saturated colors, unusual subjective or voyeuristic perspectives, and, again and again, the direct view into the camera, which turns the observer into a witness. acte2galerie is now representing Pierre Winther’s art for France.