Born in Albi (France) in 1974, he made his first photographic steps in 2005 when he arrived in the Bordeaux region. He soon joined SPBordeaux, a group of photographers, and began his first exhibitions in France and abroad.
Square format and black and white photography are an integral part of his work.He likes to work in this format, in long exposure to give the photographed landscapes another reality, another look … his.
The b&w photography is essential in its mode of expression and allows it to fully express his vision of author. Very attracted by the contrast, her images are always built in the same way, with very dark areas that bring the viewer’s gaze towards the light in very light areas. His work in color is more rare, but tends to develop over the years, guided by the experience gained and a desire to open up his work to territories not yet fully explored. The photographic work of Xavier Rey does not want to be “fashionable”, but “sincere and personal”, without useless words, the image must be self-sufficient. His photographic approach has something instinctive, like an impulse that pushes him to press the shutter at a specific moment to capture a place, an atmosphere, people …
He likes to photograph in the moment, discover a place and seek to appropriate it photographically. He collaborates with the press and various companies for advertising projects, illustration. He particularly likes various collaborations with other artists mainly in the world of music and writing. In parallel, He offers his photographs for sale in the form of Fine Art prints signed and numbered at collectors and photography lovers.
The work of Xavier Rey is in the early years focused on landscape photography, mainly in long exposure and tends more and more to be part of a research and study on blur. The use of various tools such as the Lensbaby lens marks a turning point in his work and reinforces his desire to capture the world around him in a more dreamlike way. As he expresses in his series “blurred vision”, the imaginary begins where the sharpness area ends. In the image of the world around it, which is made of nuances, areas of blur and where nothing is totally predictable.
His photographic approach allows everyone to tap into his life story, his imagination, to give meaning to the omnipresent blur in his work. It is difficult to summarize his photographic work as he is interested in different things. It develops in parallel several series on cities, including a series on “New York City” that he particularly likes, a job on the memory with a series on “Oradour Sur Glane”, a report on the daily life of a young professional boxer NEDIM KARA and obviously a series of photographs of landscapes gleaned during his various trips in France and abroad. His portrait work is much more intimate and is more in “a moment of life” than in a pure artistic will.
In the photographic series “Errance Urbaine”, Xavier Rey uses several processes to obtain the images selected according to the subject and the moment, in order to finally be part of a coherent series. The city is a place teeming with activities, everything goes very fast and in his approach Xavier Rey wanted to show another reality, another vision where time is suspended, to give place to contemplation and poetry. The human being is deliberately excluded from the series to accentuate the notion of timeless photographic wandering. Our modern society is a race against the clock, we run all our lives and it is good to take the time to observe the world around us, to appreciate the beauty, the singularity even for a short time. [Official Website]
