“Two Series”

Factory Phnom Penh (FT Gallery)

21st Nov – 12th Dec 2024‍

She is undoubtedly part of this rich French documentary school which, for twenty years, has renewed the visual possibilities of the field with great diversity of aesthetics. This work was produced as part of a very exceptional proposal from the French Minister of Culture, in 2022 and 2023 to 200 photojournalists or documentary photographers to show their portrait of France after the Covid pandemic.

The former student in Art History who then continued her studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographied'Arles chose to focus her work on the artistic practices of young people inworking-class neighborhoods, which she knows well. During Covid, all cultural venues had been closed and the post-Covid period showed how much young people wanted and needed to rediscover culture.

As always, Aglaé Bory produced portraits and, as usual, took the necessary time to give them a deep meaning. These are not formal portraits but real encounters with young people in their environment. The photographer first met those who were to become her models, spoke with them, they tamed each other, then the young people posed, alone or in groups, many with musical instruments or sketching the dance steps that are their means of expression. All these images become a family album because the photographer, very precise in her framing which are never affects that would take more importance than the characters, has managed to preserve a great unity of light, soft, peaceful. Like a new birth but also with fantasy.

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