Jean-Vincent Simonet’s photography bursts with vibrant greens, cascading white flares, and vivd pinks and purples. A kaleidoscope of fluorescent floral and vegetal shapes melt and smudge across the paper. Placed apart from each other at a steady rhythm, each photograph has a truly alive and physical presence. The work has a distinct feeling it has transcended from conventional photographic boundaries. Rather than striving for realism, Simonet’s photography signifies a rupture in our understanding of representation, moving away from ‘natural vision’ within contemporary photographic culture. Instead of viewing photography as a medium for mimetic truth, his focus shifts to the concept of the ‘afterimage’, a concept of an image that continues to linger in your eye after a period of exposure.
Simonet’s primarily botanical sequences, presented at Messums West, exemplify the particular and unique vision of his practice. Drawing inspiration from nature and its abundant variation, not immediately apparent to the natural eye, this series was born out of his interest in greenhouses found throughout the UK. He explains that “greenhouses are microbiomes in themselves, human-made to produce particular unnatural results.” With this inspiration in mind, he revisited various locations, searching for images that could undergo a process of organic liberation and transformation. From the lush landscape of the UK to the vibrant flower markets of Hong Kong, Simonet breathes life into constrained environments, infusing them with a hybrid vitality. In particular, his work often focuses on overlooked aspects of the ecosystem, such as vegetation bound in industrial landscapes. Works such as Pocket Perception 25 and Pocket Perception 26 are distortions of trees found on a busy roadside in Nepal, buried under dust, debris, and rubbish from a nearby construction site. Simonet describes these trees as survivors, struggling in a man-made environment to co-exist. Attracted to these qualities, they are reinvigorated, revived and immortalised through his photographic and printing process.
Observation is undeniably important to Jean Vincent-Simonet’s work, despite the distortion apparent in his final images. Simonet’s photographic process begins well before the shutter clicks. He believes all images have the capacity to be transformed and spends a significant amount of time photographing his travels locally and abroad. Similar to obsessive archival accumulators such as Vivian Maier, who gathered images without necessarily comprehending their significance until later, Simonet might not understand or perceive their importance until much later in the production process. This accumulation results in a primarily digital archive that Simonet repeatedly mines or reconfigures to suit the evolving needs of his practice. Rejecting the sanctity of the singular photographic image or a ‘decisive moment’, Simonet describes his process as a ‘monster’, ever evolving and growing, but always needing to be fed.
Simonet’s imagery in Uniques has also drawn inspiration from traditional eighteenth-century landscapes. Very often fantasies concocted by the painters themselves, his intention is iconoclastic, aiming to disrupt conventional notions of painterly reality through visual storytelling. Works such as Pocket Perception 215 showcase this blend. While commissioned projects provide structure, Simonet’s personal series embody a more organic approach, often evolving from primal impulses and accumulated imagery. His influences extend beyond photography, drawing from various artistic mediums. Like contemporary photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Simonet interrogates the observation of his intimate surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. However, Simonet’s rejection of the notion of a singular photographic image or decisive moment challenges traditional conventions within the medium. Instead of striving for a singular, definitive representation of reality, he embraces the fluidity and ambiguity inherent in photographic imagery. His work is not bound by the constraints of a static, fixed perspective, but rather seeks to capture the dynamic interplay between subjectivity and perception.
For Simonet, the essence of photography lies in its raw material, viewing it as a malleable medium for creative expression. Whether shooting spontaneously or with meticulous planning, each photographic print serves as a canvas for experimentation. While he appreciates the possibilities that advanced digital cameras offer, Simonet often opts for the simplicity and spontaneity of iPhones. The printing process itself serves as the primary transformative stage in Simonet’s practice. Simonet’s childhood was spent in his family’s industrial printing business, situated outside of Lyon, where he worked weekends and holidays. Initially a source of boredom, this experience soon evolved as a platform to experiment with varied printing processes, pushing the printing to its extreme. His experimenting has led to his unconventional use of foil based paper, traditionally used for industrial offset or laser printing. Working with the ink as it dries, he is able to manipulate the textures and colour fields of the print, creating visually striking assemblages that challenge viewers to question the image’s origins and its very construction. Each image is therefore unique and unreproducible, representing a completely individual journey from beginning to end. The liquidity of each picture presents a flow of information; reality vanishes to where only a small remnant of the original picture remains.
According to Simonet, the printing process is a form of liberation through gesture; brush-like strokes disrupt the print’s surfaces, a form of quick and deliberate destruction that emphasises the oddity of vision. Each print challenges the viewer to question what the image is, how it was made, and where it was taken, rather like a post-internet Atget-esque crime scene. At the core of Simonet’s work lies a fascination with retinal persistence — the fleeting moments of visual memory that linger in the mind’s eye after a particularly harsh light when the eye is closed. By harnessing the fluidity of photographic imagery, he blurs the boundaries between reality and illusion, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in a world of infinite possibilities but also of infinite anxiety. The viewer is continually asked to reconsider what they are viewing and why, an antidote to the constant stream of imagery present in the digital age.
Simonet’s exploration of alternate realities and dimensions of perception reflects a not only deep-seated curiosity about the nature of human and mechanical vision but also the relationship between what we view as natural and manmade. He draws inspiration from diverse sources, including traditional landscapes, virtual reality, and cultural phenomena, synthesising these influences into a singular vision. His work transcends conventional boundaries, blurring the lines between past and present, reality and illusion, truth and falsity. Jean-Vincent Simonet’s artistic journey represents a testament to the transformative power of photography. Through his unique approach to image-making, he challenges established norms and redefines the boundaries of photographic vision. His work serves as a catalyst for introspection, inviting viewers to reconsider their understanding of reality and perception.
Gabrielle Slack Smith
March 2024
