Benjamin Katz: Fleurs

Don't forget your flowers, Mr Katz!

"In the life of a bouquet of flowers there is sometimes a photographer. And in the life of a photographer there are sometimes flowers. That's what happened to Benjamin Katz, and perhaps it had to happen to him of all people. He has been creating portraits of artists all his life. Thousands of portraits, not of thousands of artists, but at least of a few dozen. No need to name them all. But there are more than you might think. He discovered them before anyone else. And after all the years he has been there, after all the works he has brought to light, some of which he was the first to see, the first to own, the first to show, he now leaves his flat, let's say in the morning, when it is the day he buys a bouquet of flowers at the market. He carries this bouquet of the day, which he finds effortlessly, up to his floor, places it in a vase, lets it pose in his universe in the same place every time, on the hob in the kitchen; then he takes a photo. Always the same photo with the same lens, and because he repeats this procedure, regardless of whether it is beautiful or dreadful outside, he receives a sequence of days with flowers, just like for a calendar from the post office. The only difference is that you don't count the days, you just notice some changes. The flowers change, the flower water changes, even the photographer changes a little, but the picture doesn't change, it always remains a bouquet. The picture does not capture identity. Rather the alterity. An otherness that withers in its container of uncertainty. If the name of the flower is familiar, not much is gained. The flower painters of old told entire novels in their pictures. The photographer's flowers don't have so much to tell. They only change into themselves in their own way. And then they join the ranks of all those flowers that you always wanted to show before they wither. In view of the Antwerp-born photographer, has anyone ever seen tulips disappear? In any case, since roses have been around, we have never seen a gardener die. Take a step back, old reader of magic formulae. It's just one bouquet for all the other bouquets. And just one photo for all the other photos. Don't disturb me, there are memories in progress!" {Eric Darragon in his text)

Exhibition:
Knust Kunz Gallery Editions, Munich, 6 - 29/2/2020