Catherine HENRIETTE

The Sound of Snow

There are photographers — artists — who continually return to their craft; who deliberately narrow their field of vision in order to reveal the diversity of nuances within it. One might also think of painters such as Giorgio Morandi, who worked without ever leaving his studio, endlessly rearranging objects — often the same bottles and vases — so as to renew the encounters of forms and colors that inspired ever-different compositions.

The photographer who works outdoors — a landscape photographer, as Catherine Henriette is — cannot physically intervene in the subject: it is given to her. She nonetheless has the possibility of experimenting with different angles of view, or of patiently waiting for the moment when light and color will shape the landscape in a new way. In his time, the painter Claude Monet proceeded methodically, choosing to set up a studio facing Rouen Cathedral or returning to place his easel before the same row of poplars.

Catherine Henriette’s photography thus asserts itself through subtle formal qualities while also conveying sensations: emptiness, a world at a standstill, wrapped in silence, allowing one to imagine what the sound of snow might be. Yet this solitary experience may also be an opportunity for her to confront “a formidable encounter with oneself,” inviting her to “expand her inner space” — to borrow the words of writer Charles Juliet about the pictorial work of artist Fabienne Verdier. In such a universe, might the practice of landscape not be,Cl for her, the vehicle of an existential quest?

Gabriel Bauret (exhibition curator and author)

Winter’s Tale, Summer’s Tale

Catherine Henriette, conte d'été, Les baigneuses, 2014 galerie Sit down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Les baigneuses, 2014 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, conte d'été, Le ponton, 2014 galerie Sit Down — Catherine Henriette, Le ponton, 2014 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, conte d'été, Guan yin, la déesse de la mer, 2014 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Guan Yin, la déesse de la mer, 2014 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Conte d'été, Marée basse, Qingdao, 2014 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Marée basse, Qingdao, 2014 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Conte d'été, Selfie, Beidaihe, 2014 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Selfie, Beidaihe, 2014 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, conte d'hiver, Harbin, 2013 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Harbin, 2013 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Conte d'hiver, L'Orient rouge, 2013 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, L'Orient rouge, 2013 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, conte d'hiver, cerf volant 3, 2013 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Cerf volant 3, 2013 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, conte d'hiver, La botte de foin, 2013 galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, La botte de foin, 2013 © galerie Sit Down

“For nearly 30 years I have been observing China — its economic, cultural, and social evolution. For nearly 30 years, the pulse of this country has been racing. Things are moving fast. Too fast. Landscapes and cities are transforming, becoming alienated, losing their beauty. Everything is sacrificed on the altar of development and profit. At any cost.

A direct witness to this frenzy, I felt the urge to stop time, to take up my Leica and my film rolls again, as one might take up an easel. I wanted to pause and play with horizon lines, with figures, set against the backdrop of a modern China photographed like a mirage in flux.

The patient wait for pure lines, for outlines, the delicate constancy of a filigree thread — like a tale halfway between reality and my imagination.”

This body of work received the Photography Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2013.

Swell

“I have lived on the Basque Coast for 20 years, in rhythm with its tides, its changing moods, its improbable light. I had never thought of photographing my everyday surroundings — perhaps I was afraid of the ‘déjà vu.’ It was a photograph taken by chance that made me change my mind, because the result was different from what I knew.

I decided to go further with a Hasselblad, a few lenses, and a scooter — essential for following the migratory tribe of surfers in Volkswagen vans and in wetsuits alike, who move from beach to beach according to the tides, the ‘rights and lefts’ (waves), and the ‘sacrosanct’ SWELL.”

Catherine HENRIETTE

Catherine Henriette, Swell 5 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 5 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Swell 14 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 14 © galerie Sit Down

CH-6537537 Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 7 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 7 © galerie Sit Down

CH-6535779 Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 10 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 10 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Swell 12 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 12 © galerie Sit Down

Catherine Henriette, Swell 17 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 17 © galerie Sit Down

CH-6538919 Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 11 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 11 © galerie Sit Down

CH-6538868 Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 13 © galerie Sit Down — Catherine HENRIETTE, Swell 13 © galerie Sit Down

Cirque de Lescun

The Metamorphosis of the Landscape

When she knows it has snowed in the mountains overnight, Catherine Henriette sets out the next morning for the Cirque de Lescun, where she finds a landscape that is familiar to her — she in fact owns a shepherd’s hut in this region of the Béarn Pyrenees. The snowfall has created an atmosphere she constantly seeks to capture. She thus offers us a series of images that create sensation. Not because they reveal grandiose scenery, spectacular colors, or dramatic light. On the contrary, Catherine Henriette chooses to share with us an intimate experience of the landscape, in proportion to the pleasure she takes in contemplating it.

One might even venture to say that it is not the landscape itself that asserts itself to her, but rather the way she watches it transform, through the subtle veil formed by falling snow — silently, without ever becoming a screen. Details fade, giving way to a vision of nature that could here be described as impressionistic, framed within a composition occasionally animated by the line of a winding road or a tree stretching toward the horizon. Colors, too, are muted: Catherine Henriette plays with the infinite nuances offered by the diversity of plant and mineral materials within the landscape, whose appearance is altered by atmospheric phenomena. Looking at her photographs, one finds oneself feeling what she must have felt: a cool, damp air seems to envelop us.

Gabriel Bauret (exhibition curator and author)