Winner of the 24th Picto Grand Prix for fashion photography, photographer Christopher Barraja's intimate series "De Chlore et de Rosé" is a spellbinding ode to intertwined bodies. In the course of his various shots, the photographer invites viewers on a journey in search of an intoxicating, iodized elsewhere.
As soon as he passed his baccalauréat, Christopher Barraja took off for the city of Marseille with the aim of studying architecture. Quickly realizing that this field did not resonate with him, the following year he enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD) in the5th arrondissement of Paris. It was from here that his interest in photography was revealed, even taking him across the Atlantic: "During my exchange at the School of Visual Arts, in New York, I had the opportunity to dabble in fashion photography, something I'd never really done before."
Originally from the south of France, Barraja's photography highlights details often invisible to the naked eye, which only his own being can contemplate, as "the liquid, the sea, its depth, its blackness" remain, unequivocally, an invaluable source of inspiration for the artist. One day, someone close to him told him this phrase from the book La Secte des égoïstes by writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt: "Only the details are beautiful in the universe, the whole is stupefying. " It was with these words that the invisible took on its full meaning for the photographer, giving him the opportunity to express himself freely in front of his lens: "Maybe the details are trying to tell us something, but we just don't understand them."
Christopher Barraja's photographs are generally dictated by his unconditional love for those around him. His artistic fantasy leads him into a bewitching liberation that constantly feeds his imagination. " You imagine their story, what they're doing here, what they're looking for, and in some cases, what they're going to find," he adds. This burning passion for the intimacy of his subjects is anchored in his photographs, with their ardent desire to "confront conventional elements in incongruous twists with a particular element". Indeed, the tonality of his shots, sometimes pure, sometimes mineral, plays with comical "relationships of scale", as in the depiction of a kiss between two of his friends, with the miniature view of a sailboat in the distance, suggesting, in the photographer's words, "a departure, desire, a moment too short and yet eternal".
The photographer's project "De Chlore et de Rosé" will be presented at the 37th edition of the Hyères Festival, to be held at the Villa Noailles from October 13 to 16, 2022, and will be published in book form. The artist is also working on a new personal sketch entitled La lumière d'un corps. " These two collections of images are important to me, as they touch on themes intimately linked to my experience," concludes the photographer.
https://christopherbarraja.com
Marine Mimouni