French photographer Nicolas Henry is presenting his collection “Spirits of Nature” at the Barefoot Gallery, Colombo 3 until 27 September, within the framework of the French Spring Festival 2022.
About the photographer
Born in 1978, Henry lives and works in Paris and was trained as a film director at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. He is also a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris. His moves between portraits and community-based art instalments.
Henry has also built a career as a lighting engineer and scenographer in the cultural industry, and travelled the world for close to three years as the director of the project “Six Billion Others” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. His photographs and sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, including New York, Japan, Nepal, Nigeria, Korea, and Argentina.
In 2021, he founded Photoclimat, a social and environmental biennial in Paris, presenting the work of 40 non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) and 30 artists from all over the world.
About the collection
As for the “Spirits of Nature” collection, the formation of the concept can be traced back to a residency in Casamance, Gambia, where Henry created the “Badjines, the spirits of nature” series, staged with a local team and made from the collection of seeds, shells, driftwood, beliefs, and stories found along the coast.
According to information shared by the organisers, when Henry asked his Diola team how to describe the images they made together, they evoked spirits, the spirit of the sky, the earth, or the sea. What for Nicolas Henry reflected dreams and the metaphor of a harmony with nature, was for them the materialisation of living spirits to be honoured, cultivated, and invoked in different moments of life.
The collection is very much a reflection of this year’s theme for the French Spring Festival, which is “Recounting stories”. The festival is organised by the French Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the Alliance Française de Kotte, with support from their partners. Since 2012, the French Spring Festival has aimed at fostering artistic links between France, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, presenting a wide series of events showcasing the innovative and modern initiatives carried by French, Sri Lankan, and Maldivian artists and intellectuals.
Photos Eshan Dasanayaka