Karine Paoli

"The founding act of my artistic creation is the gift my father made to me on the day of my 12th birthday, my first box. He allowed the teenager that I was to transform her revolt into creation.

From the 1st polaroid to argentic film, digital and my mobile phone, the camera is an extension of myself, my third eye which freezes in positive acceptance my vision of the world. "A mirror of Paris" is the visual counterpart of the "obscura camera" where the image is seen upside down, but from this reverse a truth springs, and which lets in my sense the essential, a furtive shadow and Graphic, an urban detail invisible to as many people as possible, a destroyed ghost city, a "stifling" nature, the eye sees beyond what is shown. In this artistic practice, my vision sweeps the world as a decor where man is only present by the traces he has left there.

Conversely, I created the Hug Me Concept where this time, humans have its dimension in my opinion, the noblest: that of benevolence. It was the early days of photography not to move, take the break, I decided to find this rhythm but that this time was dedicated to the other. In this black and white practice, for a few minutes, time is frozen and dedicated only to a person to whom we want and to whom we want to sign a HUG. More than 3,000 portraits were carried out, in France and abroad, this project of "life" has a start date but no end, it travels over time and continents, according to my desires and the meetings, It happens and goes back like a relay. It is no longer a question according to the etymology of the term spelling photo of painting the light but rather of sharing it.

Text by Laurence Guerrieni - Gallerist - Artists' agent.

Karine Paoli is also president of the association "Parisartistes # and objective women" and founder of the Hug Me Concept. In January 2015, Karine became the 1st ambassador woman for the American company PNY. "