THE ART OF FUTURISTIC DIGITAL CREATION
Henri Lauras wanted to become an architect, he became an engineer, participated in the design of military aircraft and then, in the early 1990s, branched out into the worldwide sales of business jets, a profession he continues today. This gave rise to a passion for languages and cultures, as well as for photography. His technical background and his passion for architecture resurface in the mastery of complex image processing tools, which he uses with enthusiasm to create works that transport us to the space where we are, to the time that is or passes, to the imagination of which we dream.
A photo can be made with up to 300 distorted, reworked, blended, refined or transparent images, in order to suggest the atmosphere or ambiance and create the perspectives that carry us away.
The formats that Henri Lauras works on are varied, but can reach the size of 2m by 3m.
For his first exhibition, in July 2017, Henri Lauras offered us around 80 works out of more than 500 produced to date. A feat considering that some photos require up to three weeks of hard work, a feat he achieves on airplanes or during long nights of insomnia or jet lag. The prints are produced by the photography laboratory, whose quality of work and rendering on the most suitable papers is no longer in doubt.
The world of photography is a way for Henri Lauras to tell a story. Passionate about comics, he loves to read. And he has traveled a lot, both professionally and for pleasure, because he likes meeting people who each have their own culture and way of telling their stories. He started taking photographs ten years ago. He is a man in a hurry (his primary profession is in the world of aviation), very pragmatic, with a lot of humility. He also recognizes that he is sometimes a little too spontaneous, which is reflected in some of his works. Finally, he asserts his dreamy side because everything makes him dream: he remains dazzled by a beautiful landscape, natural or urban, as by a concert, a painting or a sculpture. It is this dreamy side that makes him represent images that are not those he actually sees, but in which those he sees are integral parts and allow him to tell the story he wants to share.
There is irreverence in his character, he crosses the threshold of political correctness in these photos by addressing various themes such as politics, the future of politics, religion and even religious wars.
His biggest flaw is that he gets angry easily, with a sometimes slightly vengeful side and above all very impatient.
Henri has a taste for the arts in general. Starting with classical art in his youth, he opened up to modern and finally contemporary art. He worships sculpture, which allows all his creativity to rise within him. Unfortunately, due to a lack of space at a time of great change in his life, he launched himself into this art of fictional photography because he can take his lens (his chisel and hammer) and his computer (his studio) everywhere. Futuristic photography is a way of representing something taken in the moment and which can be worked or reworked through plays of light, retouching, contrasts, digital montages and collages that will bring the desired effects.
In his passion, Henri hardly takes himself seriously; his photos are comics that tell a story. It is through the detail, approached from different angles, that the latter can be read. The images propel us into a timeless world, into a parallel world. It may be our environment but not really our world, as in " The Universal Church ». But the place can also be completely fictitious and the characters remain real, as in the photo of " the Announcement made at the Grand Palais », featuring the G7 Heads of State and their wives in a purely fictional yet realistic setting.
Sometimes Henry also exaggerates the context to make us think about a real situation. This is the case with " "Holy War is finally declared", a five-part photo. In the first image, we see St. Peter's in Rome, whose dome has been transformed into a gigantic cannon; the second photo shows the Latin inscription painted inside the dome: " With the canons of faith, Holy Catholic Europe will drive heretics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and all barbarians from its borders.The third image is a reproduction of the newspaper. Le Monde which takes up and translates the political-fictional, economic and cultural situation of the Holy Catholic Europe. The The last two images represent, one, a fighter plane in a hangar transformed into a church, and the other, a bombed boat-people. It is therefore a work which reflects a real situation through a completely imagined situation, amplified, caricatured to the extreme.
So, Henri Lauras, defending great causes? If there is one that he will always support and defend tirelessly, it is freedom. Freedom of thought, action and religion, but with respect for others. We always fall back on this philosophical ambiguity: "Freedom ends where that of others begins." It is therefore up to each person to find the limit to their freedom and not exceed it. In this matter, borderline is intolerable. But Henri remains fiercely opposed to any form of surveillance system, whatever it may be: satellites, cameras, internet, geolocation.
Which artists are important to Henri Lauras? We discover that there are many. Some well-known and some lesser-known. He admires the photographers Jean François Rauzier and Gilbert Garcin, the former for his very large-format digital montages, often focused on architecture, and the latter for his more classical side, for the quality of his old-fashioned collages, for his very personal way of illustrating words (Squaring the Circle, The Right Diagnosis, ou Certainty for example). Moreover, like Garcin and Rauzier, Lauras often puts herself in the spotlight in her photos.
Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch were his favorite painters from his early youth. Both knew how to tell stories with irreverence, Bruegel in realism full of details, Bosch in pure fiction. Dali also has the favor of Henri Lauras for his dreamlike aspects. In Dali, he is impressed by The Dream Caused by a Bee Just Before Waking Up, which tells a whole story in one image.
Henry doesn't have a favorite color because, for him, color only has meaning through the other colors that surround it. The same color can be perceived as brighter or duller, depending on where it is found. Preference can result not only from successful harmony, but also from a lack of it. In the desert, for example, his favorite color will be green.
In fact, it's like asking a musician what his favorite note is.
Musical notes, like colors, are relative and, for Henri, can only be appreciated in a context that includes a place (we don't have the same feeling in an igloo, on a beach or in the jungle...), an ambiance (temperature, mood, scents, background sounds and lights), a harmony (other notes and/or other colors present).
A color can only be appreciated like a musical note; a taste is itself a chord. We cannot speak of elementary tastes. Taste, like the scent of things, is therefore expressed in a chord, and the same is true of colors.
There is, however, a difference: colors are fixed. Durable. Unchanging. A taste lasts only because it is in your mouth. A note lasts only while you hear it.
Despite these differences, Henri Lauras believes that color can only be appreciated in its context, in its environment. Let's go further. It is said that red and rock 'n' roll promote hard work, that green or Four Seasons Vivaldi's songs promote digestion.
Henri Lauras doesn't regret becoming an architect; by living the life he has today, he has managed to keep his dream alive. No, he doesn't regret anything; quite the opposite, especially since two of his children became architects.
In total, our artist has presented three exhibitions since July 2017. The first took place at the Château d'Effiat, not far from Vichy. With nearly 80 photos on display, it was, according to the regional press, a huge success, unexpected for a first. Then two other exhibitions were held in Paris, at Photo Shopping(October 2017) then to Fotofever(November 2017) at the Carrousel du Louvre.
Bouchra
