"ça existe, le froid fantôme?", "is it a thing, phantom cold?" in english, making an allusion to the phantom limb syndrome: the sensation that the amputated or missing limb is still attached to the body.
This project consists of a series of surfaces coated with a pigment containing strontium aluminate to make them phosphorescent: a photograph is thus exposed, as in the darkroom. The surface retains light for a few minutes, then slowly fades away. Darkness becomes an active force, guiding our vision, playing with its limits and distorting time and space.
This series of photographs, taken during my blind strolls in the forest, initiate a visual conversation: to perceive them is to finally recognize that we cannot completely perceive anything. Due to the ephemeral nature of this piece, we discover the images as they disappear, leaving us to appreciate the darkness.
Two years ago, I had the chance to embark on an expedition to Lapland, where I faced an extreme environment and a vision of the cosmos, auroras, and the universe like I had never seen before. With only two hours of sunlight per day, darkness quickly became my new and ambiguous light source.
Living by the stars, walking knee-deep on snow around the pitch dark forest, with my camera’s flash as my safelight. It was surreal and afterwards I desperately wanted to revoke that sensation. I wanted to revoke the evanescent northern lights, call back the darkest nights.
Installation view, © Frank Alix