DANS L'EPAISSEUR FRAGILE DES NEUF CROIX

In this new exhibition, produced as part of Chau-Cuong Lê's residency at CAPLE under the theme "Fraternity", the photographer takes us on a journey to meet the youth of Vallespir.
It's a series of photographs of landscapes and young people taken on their territory, alternating between bright colours, monochrome and soft tones.
Chau-Cuong Lê's training as a photojournalist and studio photographer, and his time spent working for the SAMU social (emergency social services), have given him a strong sense of shared responsibility. He wants to create a dialogue between the subjects photographed and the viewers. He allows the subjects to express themselves, freezing their existence for a time. He then encourages the viewer to question and reflect introspectively. His approach crosses not only the barrier between subjects and viewers, but also that between humans and nature. Through his work, Chau-Cuong Lê seeks to unite nature and culture like two branches of the same tree, questioning our relationship with the landscapes that surround us, sometimes without our even paying attention to them.

"L'épaisseur fragile des neuf croix" is characterised by variations in colour that are reminiscent of the changes and questions that surround adolescence, wherever it takes place. It's a personal, intimate and universal experience that everyone can relate to.
These photographs suggest that young people have made the landscapes in which they live their own. Whether it's the grass and foliage into which they wander, the rushing waterways of a child's youth, or an evening shot at a meeting where we imagine them rethinking the world and sharing their dreams and anxieties.
The calm that emanates from these photographs stands in stark contrast to the internal turmoil typical of adolescence, and captures these young people of Vallespir in the midst of their metamorphosis.

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