Biography

Plastic Artist

Chrystèle Lerisse was born in Le Mans in 1960. She lives in Saint Gilles les Forêts (Haute-Vienne, France). Chrystèle Lerisse entered photography in 1975 and did her apprenticeship with Gilles Kervella (Niepce Prize 1980).

1975

Chrystèle Lerisse is an artist photographer who has been working in silver black and white since 1975. Her apprenticeship lasted ten years. In 1985 she entered the art environment and since then she has been developing her aesthetic work where the use of silver black and white are unchanging.

Chrystèle Lerisse invites us to take a more demanding look. Always located in an immediate vicinity of the visible substance of photographable things. Light is the grammar of her thoughtful practice as a photographer. Both by the format that imposes a questioning on the classical meaning of framing, as by its treatment of black and white, it obliges us to go beyond any conformist or agreed reading of the look and reality photographed.

Publishing is also a constant in Chrystèle Lerisse's work. Books are part of her culture and the artist's creative device. . She has been inseparable from her work since 1985.

Download the press kit

Interior landscapes

Chrystèle Lerisse plays with scales, that of photography and that of what it shows. Her photographs are silent, fragmentary, sensitive, discreet, blurry, murky, erased by poetic grey values. These empty spaces offer the possibility of being inhabited by our own sensibility and our interior landscape. The multitude of these small serial images invites the visitor to get closer and establish a close relationship with the works. He enters the intimacy of space and photography and finds himself confronted with the intimate since, beyond 50 cm, nothing is visible.

A special look

Chrystèle Lerisse's view of the landscape - natural, architectural, physical, animal - reflects her inner landscape. It can be confusing both in the size of the photographs and in their composition.
The landscape in Chrystèle Lerisse's work is animated by a paradox. It departs from any temptation of the picturesque. But the photographer manages to capture its essence. The work depends intrinsically on the place. The landscape is the terrain of visual forces whose images interplay - the layout of forms - remains unprecedented. This essence, she makes her own.
So much so that places are of paramount importance for Chrystèle Lerisse, in Brittany (Douar Maen, 1985), in Touraine (La Roche-aux-Moines, 1998), in peri-urban centres (Trappes, 2011, Choisy-le-Roi 2005), in Aubrac (La Colonie, 2016), and, through the years, always in Limousin. We do not recognize these places. We know them.

A poetic point of view

We understand then that we are in the presence of a poetic approach, in which the sensitivity of the photographer is fully exercised. It seems to turn away, strolling at a moment in a slight tremor or rambling in the blur of images but does not give in to the rigor of composition, contrasts, quality of gray values.

The format of the images

Far from the saturation of the large images that overwhelm us in our cities or on our flat screens, Chrystèle Lerisse has chosen to make all her work in small format.

This small size of the photographs, far from being anecdotal or a stylistic effect, forces us to approach them as closely as possible to understand how light is the primary source of photography. It is a form of modesty that lets silence settle in our gaze.

Resume

Fairs

– 2019 Photo basel, baudoin lebon gallery
P/CAS – PARIS: YIA Contemporary Art Show #19
– 2018 Paris Photo, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2017 Paris Photo, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2014 Art Paris, Art Fair, Paris, Stand of the baudoin lebon gallery
– 2013 Summa Art Fair Madrifoto, Madrid, gallery baudoin lebon
– 2012 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2011 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2008 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2007 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2006 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2005 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2004 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
International Contemporary Photography Show
San Sebastien , baudoin lebon gallery
– 2002 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2001 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
– 2000 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair, Basel, baudoin lebon gallery
Art Fair, Montrouge
Art Brussels Fair of Art Actuel, Brussels, gallery baudoin lebon
– 1999 Paris Photo, Paris, baudoin lebon gallery
Art Brussels Fair of Art Actuel, Brussels, gallery baudoin lebon
– 1998 Paris Photo, Paris , baudoin lebon gallery
Aipad, New York, baudoin lebon gallery
Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair, baudoin lebon gallery
Art Brussels Fair of Art Actuel, Brussels, gallery baudoin lebon

public collections

Cdla – artists’ books center, Saint Yrieix la Perche, 2021, 2022, 2023
Artothèque d’Angers, 2003, 2008
Artboretum – contemporary art venue – Argenton-sur-Creuse, 2008
Artothèque d’Angers, 2003, 2008
Frac-Artothèque Limousin, Limoges 2000, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2016
French Museum of Photography, Bièvres, 1999
Ardenne Museum, Charleville -Mézières, 1996
Galerie Le Lieu, Lorient, 1995
Poitou-Charentes Regional Contemporary Art Fund , Angoulême, 1991, 2020
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1990
Château d’Eau Gallery, Toulouse, 1987, 1989
National Contemporary Art Fund, Paris, 1989, 2000, 2006
Regional Contemporary Art Fund Centre, Orleans, 1988, 1990
National Library of France , Paris, 1984, 1987, 1993, 2022
Artothèque de Poitiers, 2024

orders / scholarships

Commands

– 2017 Baudoin Lebon
– 2011 Valophis Group
– 2005 City of Choisy-le-King
– 1997 DRAC Centre, Orleans
– 1995 Dorint Hotels International, Hotel Archimedes, Brussels
– 1993 1 Reims University Institute of Technology
– 1992 Indre-et-Loire Chamber of Trades, “Vinci and Co.”, Tours
– 1990 DRAC Poitou-Charentes, Poitiers

Scholarships

– 2021 Individual creation assistance, Drac Nouvelle-Aquitaine
– 2016 Indivisual creative aid, DRAC ALPC
– 2013 Production assistance, National Foundation for Graphic and Plastic Arts
– 2012 Individual Creative Aid, DRAC Limousin
– 2008 Individual Creative Aid, DRAC Limousin
– 2004 Individual Creative Aid, DRAC Limousin
– 2000 Individual Creative Aid, DRAC Limousin
– 1995 Research and residence allowance abroad,
Ministry of Culture
– 1991 Workshop allocation, Ministry of Culture
– 1988 Individual Creative Aid, DRAC Centre

Education / Workshop

– 2020 to 2022 B&W silver photography workshop at Treignac college, 19
– 2019 to 2024 Parlons de photographie à Treignac Projet, Treignac
– 2017/2018 Photography workshops at CIAP, International Centre for Art and Landscape, Vassivière
– 2002 to 2011 Weekly photo and visual arts workshops at the Uzerche detention centre (19)
– 2006 Plastic arts workshop at the Tulle prison as part of the Postal Art
– 2004 to 2009 Photo workshops at Irfe, Isle (87)
– 2000 to 2004 Creation and framing of the photo workshop at the college of Saint Germain les Belles (87)
– 2002 Higher School of Image, Angoulême National School of Art and Design, Limoges/Aubusson
– 2001 National School of Art and Design, Limoges/Aubusson
– 2000 National School of Art and Design, Limoges/Aubusson Higher School of Image, Poitiers
– 1993 School of Art and Design, Reims
– 1991/1992 Coaching adult photography internships in Touraine
– 1989 to 2003 Workshops on artistic practices in kindergarten to secondary school, including two in Freinet pedagogy in the Central, Champagne-Ardennes and Limousin regions

Artist's practice

Chrystèle Lerisse is an artist photographer who has been working in silver black and white since 1975. Her apprenticeship lasted ten years. In 1985 she entered the art world and since then she has been developing her aesthetic work where the use of silver black and white are immutable.

Her apprenticeship lasted ten years. In 1985 she entered the art environment. The mental process of Chrystèle Lerisse’s work is the preview, to conceive and see her photograph before it is realized. This way of thinking shows that Chrystèle Lerisse is not a photographer who needs to do a lot of shooting. With her mental work done, she knows where to go and focusses on the essentials to get there and make her photograph.

Her photographic works have never been large format. When she began her research in 1985, her formats were intuitive: 21 x 21 cm and 27 x 27 cm.

After experimenting with intermediate formats, which she continues to practice sometimes, Chrystèle Lerisse came to the current format in 1992 because she chose to stay on the scale of the original composition: the 6 x 6 cm of her camera.

On the advice of her first gallery owner, Marie Françoise George in Paris, Chrystèle Lerisse numbered her photographs in 15 editions from 1989. Previous prints are also referenced and numbered, but the number of prints can vary from 1 to 15.

In 1992 she decided to number her prints to 7 editions.

All of Chrystèle Lerisse’s photographs are signed, dated, referenced and numbered on the back of the image. Starting in the mid-1990s, they bear the imprint of the right index finger: the finger that presses the trigger.

From 2000 since then, Chrystèle Lerisse has been numbering her prints with 5 editions. The number 1 remains with the artist and the other editions are for sale. There are sometimes some non-commerce prints called H.C. numbered in Roman numerals. These are reserved for non-commercial use.

Since 1994, like an engraver, Chrystèle Lerisse has been making her own prints at the same time. She destroys the negatives after making the prints. As a result, there can therefore no longer be any prints from the original negative. The existing prints are vintage prints, called vintage, limited and made by the artist. They are printed on black and white barium paper. All contact sheets and tests before final printing are also destroyed.

Publishing has been present in Chrystèle Lerisse’s work since 1985. The book is part of her culture and is inseparable from her work.

Bibliography

On the work of Chrystèle Lerisse

Collective works

Les pieds des photographes, neuf photographes en Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Editions Le temps qu’il fait, 2022
1 Artistic, one hundred per cent Architecture - University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, URCA Editions, 2017
10 years... Photography - Horschamp Editions, 2017
Photo Month in Paris - Acts Sud, 2012
Field of Experience - CIAP Editions - Vassivière, 2012
UK, Valophis renews its quarters - Trans Photographic Press Editions - Paris, 2011
The Imaginary Bestiary, The Animal in Photography from 1850 to the present day - Skira/Flammarion Editions - Paris, 2010
The Choisy Collection, ten years of contemporary photography - Archibooks Editions - Paris, 2007
The Eye in Seyne - Festival Editions - Toulon, 2005
Natural Stories - National Museum of Natural History Editions - Paris, 2003
Women.Women - South Acts Editions - Aix-en-Provence, 2002
Sense of space - Noorderlicht Edition - Gronigen, 2001
French Season of Photography - Noorderlicht Edition - Gronigen, 2001
Constellation - Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the City of Paris - 1999
Music, Visual Arts and Heritage - Sommevoire, 1996
Contretype - Brussels, 1996
Half a century of contemporary urban art in Reims, Reims, 1995
Landscapes of some, landscapes of others, Lorient, 1995
Late 20th Collection, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, 1995
Interviews, Chrystèle Lerisse / Clair-obscur, Troyes, 1995
The Matter, the Shadow, the Fiction - Nathan Editions and Library of France - Paris, 1994
The Decomposed Movement, Beaune, Langres, 1992
Landscapes highlighted, DRAC Champagne-Ardenne, 1992
Stone Wave, Troyes, 1995
May of the photo, Reims, 1992
ACQUISITIONS of fraC Centre, 1989
Art and Nature, Modern Comfort, Poitiers, 1988
Young photography, Château d'Eau gallery,Toulouse, 1987