WILFRID ROUFF
// Wilfrid is a French photographer and conceptual artist. He loves abstractions and tries to achieve it with photography. His painterly-looking series of bathers arose from an unlikely source: old low-quality digital photographs.
Wilfrid lives and works between France and New York. Born of a photographer father and having used a camera himself from the age of 13, he has let simplicity rule his photographic art, using toy devices, compact cameras, the first generation of cell phones and today, his iPhone — finding his artistic freedom within the constraints imposed by these instruments.
Professionally, Wilfrid Rouff began in New York as an assistant to Oliviero Toscani, a fashion photography giant. In the 1980s, he was one of the few photographers shooting behind the fashion scenes at the time (along with William Klein and Françoise Huguier), to cast a singular gaze on this world of fashion which has since become omnipresent. He has taught photography in France and internationally in the USA and Morocco.
Wilfrid also regularly contributes to the Revue Doc(k)s, an alternative poetry magazine published in Corsica.
His works have been exhibited in some of the most avant-garde galleries in New York and Paris—J&J Donguy, Galerie Satellite, La Boutique Sentimentale, C Space, and White Columns. Several of his works are present in the collections of the Center Pompidou in Paris. In addition, he has held solo exhibitions in several countries and participated in group exhibitions.
What draws you to the arts?
“I am a practicing artist.”
What do you like best about your photo art?
“That everyone to whom I show the pictures says “Oh! it looks like a painting”.“
Pixellation as art? As you can see in Wilfrid´s images, the graininess or pixelled nature of old digital photos (captured on an old Iphone) can be put to good use. Wilfrid photographed these bathers on a beach of the Mediterranean sea in Marseille, France. The resulting painterly look was achieved by enlarging screen captures of wider views and cropping them. What is left are images that resemble some modern art paintings.
Sometimes it is the simplest things that yield astonishing results.
Images may be cropped for layout. Click on the photos to see a larger image with orginal proportions.
ALL PHOTOS © WILFRID ROUFF
To see more of his photography visit Wilfrid´s website and his Instagram page.
SPECTACULUM MAGAZINE 