VICTOR BERTHOUD - HETEROTOPIA
Victor Berthoud, photographer from Lausanne (Switzerland), started taking pictures in 2017 as a therapy.
“I was experiencing an interior void in my late teen. I needed something to hold on to and photography was the easiest way to get started” he says.
Then, in 2020, he entered the Higher School of Photography of Vevey where he developed a more conceptual and protocolar approach of the medium.
Heterotopia is a personal-on going project
that Victor started in 2017. It was an attempt to escape his mental state at that time to find peace.
These photographs are isolated fragments of his daily environment, often eclipsing the context and the documentary nature of the subject.
In a society in constant acceleration, Victor’s gaze rests on things of extreme banality, giving them a subtle presence and a real consideration.
Heterotopia is a concept coined by Michel Foucault in a 1967 lecture entitled "Other Spaces". In it, he defined heterotopias as the physical location of utopia. They are concrete spaces that house the imaginary.
Time seems to stand still, and calm takes precedence over the movement and frenzy of everyday life. The images are almost mute. Humans seem to have been eclipsed, animals, plants and elements seem to have reclaimed their rights, expressing themself with vivacity and beauty.
The photographer’s approach is very instinctive and playful and most of the time his aim is to disrupt the shot during the capture by hiding part if the image with a color gels, by blowing on the lens and using artificial light.
Post coordination by Vincent Urbani