Éric Houdoyer photographs the street, particularly in Paris. His candid images transform everyday scenes into artistic compositions in which the anonymity of the subjects predominates. A hand emerges from the shadows, here a furtive silhouette, there a figure hidden under a hat: so many fragments of life that he immortalizes, leaving it up to the viewer to reconstruct the story behind the image. “I started photographing over 10 years ago, after working for several years as a doctor at the Opéra National de Paris,” says Éric Houdoyer. “Photography is a way for me to enter a bubble, to escape from my daily life. Working as a doctor has given me the opportunity to experience some fascinating moments in the service of the Stade Français rugby club, where I discovered some extraordinary people, at the Paris Opera, where I was undoubtedly immersed in the lights of the scenography, and then at the Louvre Museum, which I explored down to the last nook and cranny.”
Natural light plays a central role in his work, which he uses like a spotlight to highlight shapes and gestures. The shadows are deep, the contrasts marked, it’s a world devoid of faces, where every detail is revealed by rigorous composition. This approach gives his images an abstract dimension, oscillating between reality and imagination. They may recall those of Edward Hopper or the emblematic images of Saul Leiter, although he rejects any influence. “The light is often that of early morning. As for the human being, he’s often a simple element in my photographs, a human presence that can only be an element of the urban setting, as it is of nature. A sort of metaphor for the human imprint on our world.
The photographer’s aim is to find abstraction in reality, without artifice or excessive retouching, apart from a play on contrasts. These subtle, refined images, based on innocuous scenes, reveal the hidden beauty of everyday life, or at least her own. She freezes fleeting moments, pauses in the urban tumult, a visual poetry that calls out and invites contemplation. “It’s often graphic, but always in the moment.
Éric Houdoyer, who explains that he feels a strong emotion in each image, likes, like a painter, to use a palette of intense colors, ranging from warm ember tones to bright, acidic shades. This chromatic richness, combined with deep blacks, between light and darkness, produces a certain visual harmony. “I only devote a maximum of two hours a week to photography, when this light is present, but it’s a total immersion with powerful moments,” he explains. “Over the years, I’ve extended this process to Provence and other landscapes. Every place can inspire me in the same way. What matters to me is the association between human beings and their urban environment, and bringing out the emotion of the human presence in a setting built by them. Basically, my images are a reminder that mastery of the urban environment is relative and fragile, and that the same reflection applies to the human presence in the natural ecosystem.”
Éric Houdoyer is represented by the Gadcollection gallery, which regularly exhibits his photographs.
