DENIS DARZACQ

Sans Titre 4, 2006 C-print, Framed 70 x 105 cm, ed. 2/8	La Chute 16, 2006 C-print, Framed 85 x 105 cm, ed. 5/8	Sans Titre 11, 2006 C-print, Framed 70 x 105 cm, ed. 3/8
Each courtesy the artist and De Soto Gallery, Los Angeles

DESCRIPTION

Denis Darzacq’s La Chute (The Fall) is a series of photographic portraits of young French hip-hop dancers taken in the months immediately following the 2005 riots in the suburbs of Paris. Darzacq’s photographs capture his subjects mid-leap, set against a series of anonymous buildings in the 19th arrondissement. A video displayed alongside the photographs shows Darzacq’s process as he works with these dancers.

The figures in Darzacq’s photographs perform a visual double entendre, as they simultaneously appear to hover above the ground and anticipate an imminent fall. The series as a whole is a reflection on the relationship between the individual and a disintegrating social fabric, which does not properly support its young.

BIOGRAPHY

Having graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1986, Denis Darzacq began his career as a set photographer for filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Jacques Rivette, and Chantal Ackerman. Since 1989, he has been a contributor to publications such as Libération. He began to exhibit his work in 1994 in France and abroad, and received a commission in 1999 from the Ministry of Culture for a project on France’s youth.

Denis Darzacq’s photographs are now part of collections in the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Nicéphore Nièpce Museum’s National Contemporary Collection, the Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, Gallery Chateau d’eau, and the Caldic Collection.

Denis Darzacq was Laureate of the first prize “Stories” of the World Press Photo 2007. He won the Altadis prize in 2000.

Denis Darzacq

Video courtesy the artist, Images courtesy the artist and De Soto Gallery, Los Angeles