Artistic approach by Vincent Piednoir (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Jour de Chasse)
At the 2016 Salon Animal Art d’Auteuil, the public had the opportunity to discover part of the work of Pauline Planchon. At that time, the artist’s approach consisted in revisiting the richness of still life through photography—drawing in particular on the great painters of the 17th and 18th centuries, while giving pride of place to the theme of hunting.
Carefully conceived compositions, subtly orchestrated plays of light and shadow: imbued with gravity, the aesthetic developed by Pauline Planchon, along with the richness of its philosophical implications, revealed both a fresh perspective on the beauty of the inanimate and a classical approach to artistic intention, of undeniable charm.
The Salon jury, in fact, did not conceal its enthusiasm: by awarding her the Prix de la Révélation, it granted well-deserved recognition to this true disciple of Saint Hubert—who is also well versed in veterinary science.
Today, while Pauline Planchon continues to explore the possibilities of photographic still life, she has chosen—on the occasion of this new edition of the Salon, held online—to unveil an entirely different dimension of her sensitivity toward wildlife, expressed through two distinct series.
The first series presented here—where Nature, this time, is undeniably alive—was created during several safaris in Tanzania and South Africa. Elephants, zebras, lions, leopards, giraffes, and more are captured through a gaze that is eminently subjective, instinctive, even capricious at times: in the detail of a moment stolen from the bush, in the sometimes comical posture of an animal, its apparent nonchalance or genuine curiosity. Pauline Planchon has masterfully found the right angle—the one that bestows upon the subject both its beauty and its touch of the unexpected. In black and white, through the sole magic of contrast, the essence of African wildlife retains both its diversity and its powerful vitality. The art of waiting, the art of approach—and something more: that subtle originality which transforms an ordinary shot into a true photograph.
In the second, more recent series, the artist transports us to a region overflowing with wild poetry: the Camargue. There, amid landscapes of water and freedom where contemplation is still possible, Pauline Planchon gives visual form to a fascination she has long held for horses—their strength, their spirit, but also their gentleness. Her subjects—treated with an extremely evocative sense of restraint—play on the commanding power of white, against which gray and black seem to resist, as though these were charcoal drawings executed on a snowy surface. The purity of the horses’ coats immediately evokes the presence of the divine, a certain aspiration toward transcendence—a palpable characteristic throughout all of Pauline Planchon’s work. Finally, within this same series, the public discovers or rediscovers the almost precious—and undeniably unique—elegance of one of the Camargue’s most emblematic birds: the flamingo. Except that here, emerging from the waters of the lagoons, the graceful wader has exchanged its natural pink for an almost immaculate white… which only serves to reveal it all the more.
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