A self-taught photographer and thoughtful scholar of philosophy, French photographer Jean-Luc Mylayne explores temporality and the relationship of humankind to both nature and the environments in which we live.
Since 1976 he has produced, along with his wife and collaborator, Mylne, over 400 unique photographs of birds. The titles of the works reveal the length of time invested by Mylayne in taking each photograph. Jean-Luc and Mylne physically and artistically inhabit the location where the work is made, often living away from their actual home for months at a time.
Mylayne has described the birds in his artworks as “actors” while he plays the role of “director.” While the artist is both familiar and respectful of the work of John James Audubon, he feels the resemblance between their work starts and stops with birds, explaining, “Audubon was really a portraitist of birds and an ornithologist. He wanted to show people how to recognize birds by their color, their location, etc. That is not my point of view. I want to explore how to be a human being who can live in harmony with nature, and that’s very different.”
This exhibition is guest-curated by Christie Mazuera Davis of Lannan Foundation.
Sponsor
Lannan Foundation