Marguerite Bornhauser

(french, b. 1989)

French artist Marguerite Bornhauser's photographs are a spontaneous exploration of the world. In her series Plastic Colors, Bornhauser has deftly captured the many synthetic textures of today’s world. In her photographs, hues are unnaturally vivid and the juxtapositions among them are quite bold. Her eye gravitates toward textured surfaces and her camera’s flash serves to highlight the material characteristics of what she photographs. There’s the cool metal gleam of lime-green hand truck parked next to a bright-red wall; the slick and knobbly surfaces of train’s laminate-panelled wall and fabric-covered seats; or the crinkled clothes of her human subjects. When people appear in these images, they’re often seen in fragments. Bornhauser moves in close to her subjects, which speaks of both her innate curiosity and the surprising intimacy of everyday encounters on the street. “I capture the visible surface of a situation in a given location”, she writes. “I believe in the evocative power of surfaces”.

- 2015, Brian Sholis, curator of photography, Cincinnati Art Museum, USA.

Marguerite's process starts by selecting images and composing frames through the lens. She then constructs each image as an abstract composition, later picking the threads or accents that anchor the image to it's social, geographical or historical context.

She studied Literature & Journalism at the Sorbonne in Paris and later pursued a degree in Photography at the National School of Photography in Arles. She lives and works between Arles and Paris.

"A delightfully effervescent musing on the hallucinatory nature of the lurid and synthetic nature of the colors that surround us in modern life." - Greg Hobson, Curator