WORDS OF LIGHT

AFTER ROBERT FRANK

2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oil on canvas and phosphorescent pigments

38 x 54 cm

A tribute to a famous photograph by Robert Frank, Mabou (1), in which the artist has photographed early works (from the series The Americans, published in 1958 by Delpire) using a mise-en-abyme process, this painting itself is a mise-en-abyme of Franks photograph and replays the phenomenon of revelation of the latent image: when the painting is exposed to light, after the light is switched of, the word WORDS appears and glows in the darkness, as do the developed photographic prints in the darkroom. Words of Light is actually the wording found by Henry Fox Talbot - one of the pioneers of photography - to designate his invention, the Calotype. (2)

---

(1)  Mabou, Nova Scotia, 1977

(2) The anecdote is reported by Jean-Christophe Bailly in L’instant et son ombre, éd. Seuil / Fiction & Cie, 2008, not yet published in english