I grew up in Cannes in the fishermen district (le Suquet), at a stone-throw from the port and the famous film festival … I keep a huge respect and a deep admiration for the men of the sea but also for the world of entertainment and image … After being for a few months assistant of the fashion photographer Henri Heiderscheid in 1974, then I left to sail on the seas. I started my work as a professional photographer in 2000. I was one of the first to adopt digital for boat photography.
“Nicolas likes the technique and the sea, he built boats, sailed, ran his company, and if the photography came to him a bit like an opening window, he never stopped improving his knowledge of this art. Not only through of his science mastery, but also with a great knowledge of photography as an art form, this is how he looks, linking in his eyes art history with the gear possibilities.
This window opened for Nicolas a little more than 20 years ago, it is not much if we consider the richness of the work when we look at the eclectic photographs. Boats, of course, allow him to be recognized today as the reference for yacht interiors, but also Architecture, and the World in its details, as flowers grow between two stones or dies a broken branch on the ground.
A man whose convictions make a style, the pleasure he takes in his art is endlessly growing, he is one of those who believes in the last light as a chance to catch the photographer’s blue note.”
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“When Nicolas Claris decided to invest in a camera at the very beginning of digital photography, his commitment, the rigor of his methodical approach to this art, and undoubtedly also the need to obtain quickly acceptable results made him almost immediately a Photographer. From this first generation of shots, one could retain technical mastery, an understanding of his clients’ wishes and a formal academism stemming from his respect for his peers. With a solidly built base, Nicolas very quickly set out to open his mind and his lens to subjects other than boats: shadows and reflections in a Spanish house, Frank O Ghery’s architecture of curves and lights, pebbles and wild grasses, bolts and mechanical parts were photographed like Hollywood stars: always with respect, sometimes love, but also with an astonishing creativity: “doing the little things like the big ones” served as a leitmotif for Nicolas’ second period as a photographer: that of the transition to the Artist. With a humble, almost self-effacing approach, he became a major signature of altruistic photography, one that puts itself entirely at the service of the object in view. It is with the same generosity that he offers to accompany the Watever team on a trip to Bangladesh from where he will bring back pictures of incredible humanity. A lover of colors, of the ephemeral (and what could be more ephemeral than a wake on the sea or the passage of a sailboat?) he adds the notion of time passing in his photographs, as in this sublime series of dishes by starred chef Nicolas Magie that he photographs in the gardens of the Saint-James in Bouliac, or when he follows the seasons in the châteaux of the Bordeaux vineyards. Eclecticism is not an art in itself, but it gives Nicolas a freedom of tone, a creative force that today allows him to approach all subjects with that mix of skill and respect that today makes us look at his work with a joyful pleasure, far from any seriousness, ready for any surprise. Who has forgotten the tables set up on these decks of boats under construction?
These photos have become classics, but the playful discrepancy they revealed already announced the talent of Nicolas Claris, who has gone from photographer by necessity to an unavoidable contemporary artist. »
Bruno Belmont
EXHIBITIONSROUGE FRAGMENTS – BAD+ 2024 TRENTE On the rocks – BAD+ 2023 On the rocks Un ciel dans une fleur sauvage NOIRS Confinement Un peu de rouge, pourtant ROUGE Bateaux Chateaux Gateaux Bangladesh ! – Light painting Inauguration Ronan by Clinet Or et lumière Un été en fleurs Trois châteaux en hiver BANGLADESH ! Grands Formats Les métiers du nautisme Les Photographicofolies |
PUBLICATIONSNumerous yachting and architecture magazines. BOOKS
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