Pierre Gonnord

Born in 1963 in Cholet, France.
He died in 2024 in Madrid, Spain.

Bowled over by Iberian vitality, Pierre Gonord moved to Spain on impulse in the late 1980s. But not until a dramatic event occurred (the death of one of his brothers) in 1996 did this ex-marketing man decide to take up photography. With the brazenness of all autodidacts, he boldly reworked Velázquez, Goya, Caravaggio, Zurbarán, Géricault, Soutine and Nadar. In his three-quarter-face portraits, set against a black background, the swimmers wearing bathing caps and facial piercings, the Japanese monks, Gypsies and other outcasts of society of whom he is fond adopt a hieratic pose, as the use of chiaroscuro reveals part of their soul. Staring straight into the camera lens, they form a multi-ethnic frieze tantamount to a meditation on identity: a veritable voyage out.


Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.