Photographs from Jean-Michel Berts’ Light of New York series will be on view at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery December 6th, 2007 through February 29th, 2008. This is Jean-Michel Berts’ first solo exhibition at the gallery. There will be an opening reception on December 6th from 6-9pm.
Despite a promising scientific career, Jean-Michel Berts chose a different path—to become a photographer. With his first Rolleiflex, he became sensitive to the effects of light. Since the eighties he has worked as a still life photographer for several well-known cosmetics and perfume brands. While involved in this field, he pursued a body of work with a more personal focus, called City Portrait. To achieve this unique rendering, it took him more than one year of work and research.
Jean-Michel Berts collects the essence of cities. His glance is there to remind us of the grandeur of civilizations. The abstraction of characters makes it possible to move human construction forward and thus reanimate its timelessness. From Paris to New York, or Venice to Berlin and Casablanca, through his eyes, these sublimated cities take a poetic, ethereal and dreamlike value. As he likes to say, "Architectural construction is the cultural reflection of a civilization."
The richness of Jean-Michel Berts photographs also comes from his technique. Using the Zone System of Ansel Adams, and with an exposure time between nine seconds and ten minutes, this method of overexposing negatives and under-developing them allows a stronger density, enhancing the contrast in black and white.
