Discover the contemporary work of Maya Bourgeois
A multidisciplinary artist, I like to explore different artistic registers
A real jack-of-all-trades, I go from graffiti to painting on paper, including cyanotype, photography or screen printing.
A solid background in Art History allowed me to explore various creative registers. In 2020, I started painting with this desire to work with light.
I live in the south of France
Maya Bourgeois's artistic photographic approach
Imaginary canopy is the title of the photographic series that the artist Maya Bourgeois devotes to the tree. Photography has this ability to point out what we have not seen or what we do not know how to see. In a way, it reveals a reality that does not exist for our eyes, a reality that we have missed. During our urban journeys, it is rare that we raise our gaze to admire the canopy that sometimes forms above our heads.
And yet, a magical world overlooks us. Maya re-enchants it to encourage us to contemplate it. She draws on the magic of the digital tool to tip reality over to the magical side. It is by walking at nightfall, in the city, her face turned towards the sky that she captures all the marvelous potential of the living that we encounter daily.
In a fraction of a second, her intuition guides her to her subject. Then comes a more analytical approach to determine the shooting angle. This must combine light, colors and graphic effects for a staging that immediately plunges us into another place. The goal is simple: to obtain a striking vision of reality in order to create a kind of electroshock in the viewer. To do this, the artist relies on urban lighting that generates contrasting light, artificial colors and a low-angle framing. During post-production, she makes only a few modifications: she reframes in order to reinforce the notion of off-screen and pushes the saturation of the colors to their maximum. The resulting shot is like a visual signal. With its magical and astonishing appearance, it captures and holds the viewer's attention, offering them the opportunity to reach another level of reading. Behind this poetic aesthetic of the tree, lies a societal demand: the need to value the living in all its beauty and fragility. The tree is the symbol here. Often mistreated by destructive urban projects, it crystallizes our state of being. With this series, Maya Bourgeois reminds us that beauty and magic surround us, that this magic is called nature and that we are part of it. By focusing on the canopy, the photographer reminds us that intelligent communication exists between trees, that it is based on exchange, mutual aid, protection and solidarity, including between different species. Pointing her lens at the branches is a way of making these interactions visible and, above all, of reminding us of the foundations of living together. By drawing on the codes of the magical and the poetic, the artist emphasizes that nature, in its inventiveness and beauty, will always surpass what we could imagine.
Imaginary Canopy series, digital photographs, prints at pigment ink on Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308 g/m2 fine art paper, each print is numbered on 10 copies
