Aphrós

Romain

Nominated by

2020

This series came into being at first within the boiling energy of Exarchia (Athens), then it deployed its matrix in many - sided elsewhere which bear the imprints, the gaps and the elements of resistance of a society on its last leg. Here the opaque signs of a primitive ephemeral urban alphabet come to the surface. There delicate, shivering skins come modestly into view, the fragile delight of life fighting to survive. This work is a polysemous corpus set into deep, contradictory fows. Colours and materials, lines and faces, signified and significant jostle together here, they come to the surface from the very bustling depths of our towns and of our bodies just like foam on gale days.

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The Artist

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Romain

Nominated in

2021

Tbilisi Photo Festival

Lives and Works in

Lyon

Graduated in Political Science and Urban Sociology, his work unfolds in territories left, maintained or deliberately built on the fringes of our cities. He takes them on over a long period of time and draws up a personal cartography, walking a fine line between documentary and fine art photography. He attaches particular importance to form, colour and material, which serve as points of encounter with his mental universe. In this way, he constructs a visual language that is both frontal and polysemous, offering a singular vision in which human frailties are transfigured by new lines of force. His work is regularly exhibited at festivals in France and abroad, like Athens Photo Festival, Tbilisi Photo Festival, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles or Circulation(s). He was awarded the Maison Blanche Prize in 2021.

More projects by this artist

2024

GZ (working title, in progress)

All the following photos were taken at Grrrnd Zero (‘GZ’, located in Vaulx-en-Velin, near Lyon) and sketch the beginning of a project that I haven't yet limited in time. GZ is a self-managed venue that mainly offers concerts highlighting the alternative, experimental and protest scene, but also readings, plays, screenings, conversations and other support evenings, all without operating subsidies and at free price. This venue and the people who frequent it reflect the many struggles that I feel are vital and that infuse this work: feminism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, identity and gender, relationship with the living, self-management... For 20 years, in a spirit of benevolence and inclusivity, GZ has been home to various communities that are more than ever threatened by the authoritarian evolution of our contemporary societies. I'm interested in this place through the prism of the young people who frequent it, with this question in the background: how can we create an acceptable present while imagining a desirable future in the current context?