Buy Libre dans la ville by Romain Bonnet. Online art gallery.

Romain Bonnet manipulates, processes and reprocesses his photographs with the help of specialist software to achieve the results he aspires to. For those in the know, he plays mainly with fusion masks and brushes, seeking to achieve painting-like effects. In this way, he succeeds in obtaining the desired hues and lighting effects.

FROM MUSIC TO DIGITAL CREATION

A former professional flamenco guitarist, Romain Bonnet has plunged into a new artistic project that has always been close to his heart.

Most of the time, he uses photographs of women as a medium for expressing his ideas and inspiration: "I have no artistic routine or ritual in my creations. Like a musician (which I used to be) I leave a lot of room for improvisation. But it's a controlled improvisation, always with an idea or a message to get across.

HIGHLIGHTING FEMALE PORTRAITS

His creations add an aura of mystery, fuelled by digital effects. The subject often stares out at the viewer, letting them plunge into this unreal gaze. The face comes into view, framed and eaten away by the décor. The features become blurred, altering the reality we recognise, that of the woman, to give way to a raw expression. The women, young, beautiful and smooth-skinned, gain in texture. Their status as inaccessible beauties disappears under the profane attacks of painting.

Paradoxically, this approach gives them a new materiality, giving pride of place to their initial magnificence, while subjugating it with micro-imperfections.

But other inspirations also lead him to photographic manipulation. He works on and intensely modifies several photographs to compose a scene that becomes his cliché, allowing him to treat everyday subjects in a surreal and artistic way.