Olivier Metzger
Culture
Olivier Metzger
Somewhere and Somehow
Four years after Olivier Metzger’s accidental death, Actes Sud is publishing ‘Somewhere and Somehow,’ a book bringing together 80 photographs accompanied by a previously unpublished text by the writer Éric Reinhardt. Coinciding with this, the Association du Méjan and La Filature, National Theatre of Mulhouse, are hosting a joint exhibition on his work at the Croisière space in Arles, which is open to the public until 4 October.
A psychiatric nurse turned photographer, Olivier Metzger graduated from the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles in 2004 and won the Rencontres d'Arles Prix Découverte in 2009. Now represented by the Modds agency, he has built an instantly recognisable body of work, with images that seem to emerge from a world slightly out of step with our own. Deserted roads, anonymous rooms, woodland edges, dark terrains, isolated signs or motionless silhouettes form a landscape traversed by a singular light, defined by chiaroscuro and enigmatic apparitions.
Steeped in the influences of American photography and cinema, his images cultivate narrative ambiguity. They begin with the real world only to carry it elsewhere, towards a quiet intensity that is seldom evident in everyday life. These places appear imbued with a quiet presence, bringing to the surface a sense that the world holds deeper layers than meets the eye. A road, a mountain or a hotel room then become the vehicles of a sensory experience where unease and fascination intertwine.
Novelist, playwright and art publisher Éric Reinhardt was a close observer of Olivier Metzger’s work. Rather than charting a career or defining an aesthetic, his tribute focuses on understanding what these photographs evoke in the viewer. Referring to the Alpilles, a region that Olivier Metzger photographed extensively during his life, he writes: “The Alpilles belong to him now.” This phrase captures the singular position these images occupy: they do not merely depict places; they end up shaping how we see them.
« SOMEWHERE AND SOMEHOW »
A book published by Actes Sud
Format: 21 x 28 cm / 128 pages / hardback / 80 colour photographs / €35
actes-sud.fr / @actessud_photo
Exhibition in Arles until 4 October
65 boulevard Émile Combes
modds.fr / @modds.photo
Photos © OLIVIER METZGER / MODDS
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