ABOUT

Originally from Oise, Stefan Bodar now lives in Amiens in France. His university career led him to be particularly interested in and study the artistic process among people on the margins of society who have no artistic training but, for whom, art is a way of being connected despite everything with the world, society and above all a way of existing. He began his artistic practice with abstract painting, already with the idea of pictorially transposing emotions in a direct style. Painting will introduce him to the composition of the image, then he will turn to photography which will allow him to work more interactively in the encounter with others. He will put his gaze, his curiosity and his emotions to work. Several recurring themes then appear: the relationship with others (humans), with society, elsewhere and the trace of identity.

Through these themes, his style is anchored mainly by frontal views, thus marking the confrontation of his gaze with reality. The wide-angle framing reflects the need to open the space to reflection and the impression of emptiness and strangeness that sometimes results from it. His photos also highlight a perspective, a horizon that invites the notion of the unknown. Research into framing and staging demonstrates the importance given to the composition of the image. In the same way as a canvas, the frame delimits an aesthetic and its own emotion which reflects the artist's gaze. The refined compositions work on symmetry and arrange the different subjects in the environment or in relation to the environment, thus reinforcing the idea of a dialectic between the photographer, the subject, the other and the space.

Purified photographs, putting at a distance, indicate distrust as much as curiosity and observation and therefore the need for contact. This is the whole subject of his reflection on each person's place, neither too far nor too close. His photos are no less on a human scale, always at equal height with the subjects photographed, away from any judgment, the motivation is more the understanding and capture of humans and their environment.

His work was built and evolved from the memory of film photography. This process of development where time brings value to the final result, conveys the memory of a reality that transcends time. Time stands still and each photo can be imbued with a certain poetry. This is what guides the artist, he claims that a photograph can be thought of, constructed over time, inhabited by emotion, kept, looked at.