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Digital Technology and Creativity

Monumental images, each one constructed by assembling several hundred photos,microcosms in which one can be submerged and lost, Jean-Franois Rauziers

Hyperphotos offer dimensions where a multitude of details are there waiting to bediscovered. For example, one can peruse Beach of Memories over more than 20 yardslong, with a resolution of a photographic print (more than 1 billion pixels !) and so take off ona photographic hunt inside the image.

My Hyperphotos are the realization of a longtime dream that would never have beenpossible without digital technology : to see at the same time the all-over view as well as theintimate one, to stop time and be able to examine all the details of the fixed image. saysthe artist.

FROM THE FIRST ATTEMPTS WIDE ANGLE AND PANORAMIC.....

Jean-Franois Rauzier first tried to create his immense visions by using ultra-wide-anglelenses. But the deformaiton and amplification of the perspective that they caused did notwork for his idea of creating a vast image into which one can become lost in. I wanted tore-constittue what I see when turning my head 180, 270, and even 360, without having theimpression of going thruough a lens and its limits. In any case, even with a fish-eye, Icouldnt go more than 180. And my ambition was to control the deformation withoutcreating a noticeable effect.

He then tried panoramic cameras: the lens mounted on a rotating pole activated by a time-mechanism, sweeping the field and projecting the image on a convex film. The results weresurprising and magnificent, but this technique also had its limits: all of the straight linesparallel to the horizons became curved.

...TO THE JUXTAPOSITION OF DIGITAL IMAGES

I began taking a succession of images from right to left, then putting them together withPhotoshop in order to obtain a panoramic image. But obtaining very thin horizontal imageswasnt sufficient. He decided to take in the vertical aspect in his assembling of the imageand came across a cartography problem: how to project on a flat photographe the quartershpere of a landscape covering 180 horizontally and 75 vertically.I tried very rapid assembling software (Stitcher de Realviz, for example), but flat projection

creates a wide-angle deformation, changing the quality of the image, and speric projectionreproduces the panoramique effect with its curves.

In the end he decides on a much longer but more controllable process: assembling theimages with Photoshop deforming them as little as possible. But then there were holes...Imagine that the photos are stones of a domed ceiling that must be laid out on a flat surface.It becomes a triangle: several stones at the base, then less and less on each level going up,ending up with only one at the top: the keystone. What I wanted to obtain was a rectangle.In order to obtain a rectangle, he must place his clichs in the upper levels with spacesbetween them, then filling in the holes. So he photographes, cuts out and adjusts a largequantity of details to recreate the missing peices of the puzzle. Still, its not at all syntheticimages all the elements are actual photos!

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PERFECT DEFINITION

No lens can give the perfect sharpness in one photo, from as close as 12 inches up toinfinity, that I can achieve by assempling 200 photos. I wanted total definition: such as on ageography map or a botanical or entomology board, where every plant or animal is specifiedand in its place.

In order to obtain such a result, Jean-Francois Rauzier tirelessly photographes every inch ofa landscape with a telephoto lens, shooting at the time of the day that gives optimal light. Byshooting in horizontal bands and verifying the focus at each level, all over perfect definitionis finally achieved.

At the computer screen, cloning, assemling, redesigning hundred of tree trunks, branches,leaves... I have the impresson of working on a giant puzzle. I escape into a strangeexlporation of details that were unnoticed while shooting: a spider on a web in the ferns inthe undergrowth, airplanes in the sky invisible to the naked eye, blades of grass, spikes ofwheat so variable that the diversity surprises me. It becomes a communion with nature,

prospicious to meditation, like an engraving or a sculpture. Time becomes an ally...Gabriel Bridge, for instance, is the result of three hours of shooting at night: 160 clichstaken blindly with one minute for each one! Many details became apparent afterwards, themagic of the result, the importance of hasard... The cat was actually present that night, butbecause the shooting time was so long, I had to photograph it seperately and reincorporateit in the final image.

SUBTRACTING AND ADDING

To become totally involved in the landscape and allow its inner image to come through,Jean-Francois Rauzier eliminates bothersome details: houses, electrical poles, cars, traffic

signs... To create my ideal world, I remove whatever signifies human presence in order togive the landscape its original virginity. Perhaps a kind of quest for a Garden of Eden...However, what is seen in the end is not untouched and wild, but often tamed or cultivated.The fields fascinate me by their sage regularity, the solid and peaceful rythm they impose ona landscape. Nuturing mother nature is controlled and domesticated. And therefore alsothe dream...

On the other hand, he replaces quite a few elements. Objects that seem to be waiting forsomeone: balls, sandals, books, toys, bicycles.. In any case everything is still, frozen intime, sometimes even worrysome, seeming like the aftermath of a catastrophe.

In my first works, there was maybe just one object integrated in the dcor: an armchair, a

wrecked car... Then I started to repeat the objets to impose a ryhthm in the dcor andespecially to give it some scale, a notion of distance and depth that had a tendancy todisappear in the empty landscapes.

The landscapes in Jean-Franois Rauziers hyperphotos are very recomposed. To obtainwhat hes seeking, he has built himself a collection of trees, skies, fields, forests that heassembles according to his inspiration. This technique allows complete freedom to achievehis desired landscape and to control the lighting, as hes used to doing in his work as astudio photographer. I photograph a field with a certain direct light, but then I can choose acompletely different sky, creating a surrealistic stormy atmoshpere. Its like creating a dcoron a movie set.

With these highly fabricated images, we are far from the candid photo and much closer tohyperrealstic painting.

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But I still want it to be photography, or like a still shot in a movie, that is believable. Imcareful to stay within the realm of the photo, respecting shadows, reflections, natures realimperfections.

To stop time... During the actual shooting, its not so easy. Taking 200 cliches doesnt takeonly 1/30 of a second, but more likely at least a half an hour. The tormented skies dontwait. Sometimes the magnificent light of the sun breaking through the clouds only lasts afew minutes. Hardly the time to begin a series of cliches. I try to stop time with all itsdimensions and all its possibilities.

Now we have the matter of exposing such works. The installation as well as thephotography. Showing them in a smaller format would make them lose their interest. Thehuge dimensions of these images pose many technical and practical problems: printingmachine size, mounting or framing, transporting, finding suitable exhibiting space....

Jean-Franois Rauzier is working on it. To be continued...