A French photographer who has lived in the United States for over ten years, Arnaud Montagard is a pure product of street photography. With numerous awards to his name, including that of the Florida Museum of Photographic Art in 2020, he approaches the country's geographical landscape as a vast playground for investigation, gathering and working on American clichés with his expatriate eye.
In the contemporary imagination, the United States and the Hollywood star system seem to be synonymous. In Arnaud Montagard's images, we (re)discover another facet of the country, from the melancholy and adventurous imagination of Jack Kerouac in "The Road Not Taken", to the culture of the Western and its cowboy poets in "There is a Silence". In his "Slice of light" series, the city appears as if on a sheet of paper, illuminating its passengers. The colour contrasts are striking. The situations transport us into the poetics of everyday life. In recent years, however, Arnaud Montagard has adopted an increasingly documentary approach, without losing the precision of his framing or his fascination for cinematic atmospheres.
His esteem for his subjects and the people photographed is matched by a stronger sense of individuality in those he brings to light. The slow exchange and gentle listening act as a leap into a timeless universe, where reality meets cinematic myth.
Ana Bordenave
United States - New York