Olivier Christinant: No Day Without Night

The protean and rigorous work of Olivier Christinat continues to evolve, opening onto new visual territories. Long known for his photographic surveys of urban density and populated landscapes, he now shifts his attention to the unexpected: peripheral, vacant, often overlooked spaces. Yet beyond the physical landscape, Christinat delves into the terrain of the image itself—and at its blurred borders, text emerges.

Or perhaps it is the reverse: the text, already embedded, infiltrates the image. Entire literary works—The Pentateuch, Goethe’s Faust, Dante’s Inferno, Kafka’s Metamorphosis—are hidden within the visual surface. Though barely perceptible, they alter the way we see. These texts offer a second layer of reading, one of texture and resonance, transforming our perception and unveiling new dimensions of meaning within the photographic frame.

The result is not an image-illustrated text, nor a captioned photograph, but a fluid encounter between two languages. As the subtle drawings suggest, it is the artist’s hand that forges the connection—drawing, writing, photographing—giving coherence to the whole. In this interplay, Christinat redefines the photographic act as one of translation: a visual transcription of thought, memory, and meaning.