Metropolis architectural symbols and flashy tones are the key elements of Caroline Gasch, photographer and art gallery owner from Tours

How deep is our relationship with big cities around the world?

Caroline Gasch’s artworks push us to ask ourselves this emblematic question.
Behind every eyescatching city skyline there is a deeply and hidden meaning that she tries to reveale us using the power of colors. Thanks to tones she translates the energy of each place into a visual and pictorial force.
Geometry and chromatism embrace themselves to reveale us another type of landscape, magic and powerful. In each shoot there is something deeper than what we think to perceive.

Caroline achieves these results mixing photography and digital manipulation as she has explained us in the lines below. She works as a painter in front of her canvas adding her emotions. She feels the art of photography from the bottom of her heart, in fact she tried for a long time to achieve her childhood dreams: opening an art gallery and becoming a full-time photographer.
This passion shines through her compositions as you can appreciate looking at Caroline’s artworks display on ArtSail platform.

Now it’s time to listen to Caroline’s fascinating artistic story.

E.R. Your passion for photography started at a very early age, when you was 14 years old. However you became a full time artist many years after. Could you describe us which interior force drove you in 2009 to follow your creative dreams in 2009?

C.G. That’s true: I discovered photography at the age of 14. It has been the thread of my life. I still remember the feeling at the moment that something special had just been accomplished. I knew that, one day, it would be my professional activity. However, at the time, artistic professions were not well seen so I followed another path, a university course in foreign languages because I told myself that it would allow me to go and take pictures elsewhere.
By dint of determination and stubbornness, I followed my passion and I made the decision to finally do what I lived for. I started as a full-time artist-photographer about 12 years ago and 5 years ago I fulfilled my childhood dream by opening my own gallery here in Tours. It's extraordinary, I meet people, I realize myself and I blossom through my art.

E.R. Architecture is the key of many of your compositions. Why do you feel attracted by the urban landscapes?

C.G. I started travelling at a very young age in various places. I discovered countries, cultures and cities. I was very quickly hooked and fascinated by urban environment that led me to observe and compare specific architecture of each place.
Then I focused my feelings on vernacular architecture. I was looking for motifs that capture the spirit of big cities. My images show architectural decorations as reflected in my own eyes.
I could be considered as a photographer at the service of architecture, as her interpreter and relay. Furthermore, my work consists in capturing the color of the mineral surface to reveal its aesthetics and beauty.





E.R. Speaking about the history of photography, cities and human constructions attracted many artists: from Bernd and Hilla Becher, that were particularly influenced by industrial landscapes, to the building pics of Michael Wolf. Is there a photographer with whom you feel closest to?

C.G. I am attracted by American photographers who have honored color photography in the early 70’. Stephan Shore and Joel Meyerowitz particularly. Their work mesmerized me and I am still fascinated by their color photographs which describe the American way of life: a testimony of the landscapes as they were in their time. I love the landscapes and lifestyles they documented: old cars, billboards, anonymous suburban grocery shops... Stephan Shore’s "American Surfaces" and "Uncommon Places" series have a particularly interesting resonance. Meyerowitz photographs places of everyday life with such clarity that they stand out from the banality. He shoots the empty streets of St. Louis, Missouri, pavilions and signs in the unreal light of twilight or night.
To take up Raymond Depardon's idea: I started in color to "imitate" these glances. I discovered with them the power of photography and the joy of being a photographer.

E.R. In your serie entitled “Imaginary” you used digital image manipulation to create a particular sensory gaze. How do you mix and dose photography and pc manipulation to create these particular artworks?

C.G. My visual approach has always been to use a camera to best express what I am feeling inside. It is all heart energy. Buildings, houses have a life of their own. As an artist, I just want to share my feeling to merge outside and inside worlds. I would like viewers to feel it too.
I try, through honest and reliable retouching work, to ensure that my thrill takes shape without distorting the concrete vision of the scene shooted. The idea is just to share an interpretation of how the city in front of me seems to me. The rhythm and vibration of it, the energy of the place.
I don't want to lose my audience but to show them another reality: dreamlike, abstract, intimate. Digital manipulation tool is like a paintbrush for a painter.

E.R. Could you describe us one of your artworks displayed on ArtSail that particularly reflects your poetics and photographic style?



C.G. Color Waves, Los Angeles

This photo highlights the splendor of the facade of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.
At night, the colors are vivid and luminous, they reveal the play of light staged, the graphic design of the architecture and inspire energy and good mood. I searched to transcribe an architectural polychromic visual force but also the idea of art and culture.
This photo is the result of several images assembly (because each color appeared isolated). My work as an author allows me to put inside an image my own inspirations through the great complexity of our urban environment. In these modern architectural settings, I shape light and I use colors to transpose the energy of the place into a visual and pictorial force.

E.R. Can you tell us some of your future artistic projects?

C.G. The current situation is difficult for everyone. Borders are closed and cultural gatherings are cancelled. It is therefore no easy for me to plan, but that does not prevent me from creating. As soon as travelling will be allowed, I plan to go and photograph Mexico City, following the footsteps of the Mexican colorist architect Luis Barragàn whose work inspires me so much. He liked colors, but not all of them. He had a passion for bright, flashy tones that catch the light and delight in their gaiety. This is the heart of my artistic work.