Quentin Lacombe

Quentin Lacombe

Quentin Lacombe (b. 1990, France) is a graduate of Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Paris La Villette, and ECAL (École cantonale d'art de Lausanne, Switzerland). He currently lives and works in Paris as a freelance photographer. 

Lacombe’s work attempts to understand the universe as a fragmented, complex and infinite experience. Trained as a photographer, his work is not limited to the exclusive use of the camera as a means of observation, but also includes the use of primitive photography techniques and digital tools. All these means, when combined with digital collage or studio shooting, aim to challenge the immediacy of the photographic medium.

Crucible of Time

Crucible of Time is based on a reinterpretation of the myth of the Ark in the current context of global crises (pandemic, climate). The project takes its title from a 1984 book of the same name by science fiction author, John Brunner, which tells the story of a star whose trajectory crosses a turbulent interstellar space, cluttered with dust, meteors and wandering planetoids, and whose inhabitants are preparing to die or to survive. 

At a time when mankind seems to be losing control over its environment, the question of what we can save arises. If we have to choose, what would be the method that would guide these choices? Like the thinking behind illustrative atlases, Crucible of Time gathers fragments of the world in a photographic time capsule intended for both terrestrial and extraterrestrial viewers, capturing the very moment in which we lost control of our environment.

In the images, several layers of time are superimposed. Images taken in March 2020, at the height of the pandemic in South Korea, are confronted with solargraph (a long-duration image of the sun's path captured by a pinhole camera) that reveal the changes in the trajectory of the sun’s path over the course of successive confinements. 

With the solargraph, the curve of the sun lays its trail on the photosensitive paper. On the surface, the immensity of the world is in motion. The light traces each day in contours: the shadows, the movements of trees and insects, and meteorological incidents. Among the chaos of organic materials and patterns of ultra-urbanization, the series of photographs crystallises this state on the border of possible collapse.

Image: Quentin Lacombe, Horleggor Ark, 2020, Photography over Solargraphy, Film Transparent HD Paper over PhotoArt White Baryta Paper Classic-Magnetic Frame, Alu 08 mm, Mirogard Plus Anti-Glare Glass.