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BECKA, Photography, guest artist, Jardins invisibles

Martin Becka's Territoire series reminds us that exploring a landscape as a photographer means first and foremost slipping into the fabric that connects it to humankind. This complex interplay, which ultimately weaves another world—that of images—seems to rise to the surface of the photograph. It is as if an entire story were inscribed on the surface, defying the usual photographic transparency. This something that exists there constantly clouds our acquired perception: it confuses us and disrupts our knowledge, whether it be our reading of images, places, or time.

Biographical notes - approaches

Martin Becka lives and works in Touraine.

Originally a photojournalist, in the mid-1980s he developed a passion, alongside his press work, for the history and pre-industrial technical processes used by the pioneers of photography.

Martin Becka's photographic series focus mainly on architecture, urban and suburban spaces, and landscapes. By taking a step back and using pre-industrial processes, ordinary places and things take on an unusual dimension in his photographs, feeding the imagination by shifting our perception of reality. A disturbing temporal paradox creeps in: are these landscapes and buildings contemporary? Are they real? Should they be viewed as ruins of the past or as a future vision of our time?

The photographs are taken with a large-format camera (40x50 or 20x25 cm) using the waxed paper negative process, which he makes himself according to Gustave Le Gray's method (1851). Exposure times vary from a few minutes to several tens of minutes. For positive prints, Martin Becka uses various pre-industrial techniques, including salted paper, albumen paper, the palladium process, etc.

Depending on the subjects covered, Martin Becka seeks the rendering best suited to the subject of his various series. Experimentation precedes the technical choice made for the series. It is a long and meticulous process. The rarity of the images obtained praises slowness, brings the photographic object to the forefront, and runs counter to the mass production of images as we know it today. The prints, with their unique textures and lighting, make us feel the fragility of our world and encourage us to enter into one of the states most necessary for the future of humanity: meditation...

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