Biography

BIOGRAPHY Kiki of Paris

He initially aimed to study humanities and social sciences before turning towards drawing and painting. In Montparnasse, he was introduced by the actor Michel Simon to Henry Miller who advised him to devote himself to photography. This meeting is a key moment in his career.

He then worked with the ethnologist Robert Jaulin and traveled through Asia, Central Europe, Cuba, Jamaica and, particularly, the United States.

In the early ’90s, he joined the humanistic photography movement (especially Willy Ronis he met very often) and later designed his proper framework by choosing strong themes like daily life italian summer.

In 2006 is created the Kiki of Paris Committee, a society whose aim to promote the work of the artist and to deliver authenticity certificates. Since 1999, Kiki of Paris is a member of the ADAGP.

The melancholy of Kiki of Paris

The yellow taxi that you can see in the photo called Key West had just set him down by the side of a long road outside Miami. The strange nature of this shot is intriguing. You can see in it whatever you want to see, but there is definitely something, sad, languid, lonely about that day, with the taxi disappearing into the heat and the humidity; he felt abandoned, orphaned, alone in the world.

At the heart of the matter, the artist photographs what is abstract. In the work entitled “The Last Ride” the fairground ride is going round for the last time in the day. The passengers are self-confident; a slim, good-looking man like a lead soldier is operating the ride. He looks something like the Last of the Mohicans; the photographer reflects on the passing of time. Although this photo uses the contemporary style and taste for kitsch and popular culture, its romantic side adds to the interest.

Kiki of Paris has produced a relatively limited portfolio of work. He destroys many of his pictures. Sometimes he even loses them.

Polymorphous Structures

He sometimes uses recomposed pictures as well, as in the series entitled Polymorphous Structures. He aims for a meaning that is thoughtful and intended; he produces a carefully constructed image, an allegory: Ulysses, Adios Queens, the Sacrifice of the Cockerel, The Messenger…

Desolation Canyon assembles a group of three people that the artist photographed in Charleroi and “moved” to the famous American landscape of Death Valley.

The photographs of Kiki of Paris bear witness to his positive subjectivity, his vision of the world, his love of ordinary people, of popular festivals, and of the comic side of street life… Loulou, a French dog crossing the road only on pedestrian crossings just to please his mistress, a war widow, the spontaneous smile of a young girl in The Prague majorettes…

Far from any mere attempt at seduction, his camera captures intimate moments between people and things.

Sense and imagination, talent and more
His original work remains very close to visual artists such as Giacomelli, Nan Goldin, or the American David LaChapelle but with a particular purpose, a specific touch peculiar to his attachment to humanistic photography. Each image exposes a particular meaning like this yellow taxi in Key West that reminds him of a text from Burroughs about a book by Jack Kerouac “Visions of Cody”

You know this strange feeling when the taxi leaves and you feel lonely in the world, like an orphan ?

En 2014 la série de tirages issus de l’album REVOIR PARIS a reçu le Winner Prize au MIFA à Moscou

TESTIMONIALS

“Demanding, in reverse of the common places, your photographic work seduces by its poetry.
Seeking to fix the imagination, your vision transcends reality and everyday life and brings out images of great creativity.“

Bertrand Delanoe
Former Mayor of Paris

“Since childhood, we call her Kiki. Paris is its roots, which gives meaning to its existence.
Later, in California everyone will call it “Kiki of Paris” -. Kiki of Paris will be his coat of arms, his brand, his coat of arms. “

Frankie-Tacque
President of the Salon des Indépendants – Paris

« It is probably his closeness to literary giants such as Henry Miller, Ionesco and Samuel Beckett that influenced the mapping of his art.

Other major encounters in his life: the film director Joseph Losey, who instilled in him the rigour of indirect framing; and David Lynch, who inspired him for some compositions in his own discipline, which he carries out with talent, photography.

After studying humanities and absorbing their complexity, KIKI OF PARIS fell in love with life, and continued to capture the ecstatic breath of it. He then started his humanist period. The Italian summer, and his set of intelligent compositions would follow.

Photographer of the intangible, he loses and destroys many of his images. It’s as if the sacred was rooted in the ephemeral, only to keep the intention. Because only the intention goes beyond the action and sanctifies the origin. Is this a prejudice?“

In his tribute to Olivier Debré, he depicts the spirit by providing the “fervour”, so dear to the great painter, whom he joined in the quest towards a chromatic quintessence approach.

Their common theme: the silent skies in a planned indisputable technique which connects photography to the intellectual constraints of abstract painting.

The lack of logorrheic material makes a space vibration necessary. “Dark blue covered with white clouds with tears in the sky like slices of silence” has won over the American collectors, causing great excitement.

Kiki of Paris, an artist in the major league.“

Mylène VIGNON
Art Historian – Art Critic