The series Les vagues scélérates, comprising 20 photographs, originated in an exploration of scientific knowledge. In the course of her research, the artist discovered that water and light behave in the same way, so much so that optical fibers are referred to as “rogue waves”, just like the ocean. Fascinated by this unexpected parallel, Sarah Ritter discovered the world of fluid mechanics and, in particular, swell channels: long glass corridors filled with water, in which artificial waves are generated for study. Based on this highly artificial universe, the series proposes a recomposition of impossible waves, where logic reigns supreme. Here, science is used in reverse as a scenography of wonders, of active fictions, and photography, by freezing movement, sculpts waves and metamorphoses. Our belief in images makes us look for coherence where there is only montage and fake waves. They create a universe in tension, between blue plastic sand and an ocean we no longer understand – a world that escapes us, an uncertain world.
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2021.
Artwork
Les vagues scélérates
2021.
Digigraphie prints on baryta hahnemühle, framed
20 x (45 x 30) cm
Artist
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Sarah Ritter
sarahritter.net
Les vagues scélérates
Sarah Ritter
Born in 1978 in Besançon (France)
Lives and works in Besançon (France)
After studying philosophy, Sarah Ritter graduated from the Ecole nationale supérieure de la photographie d’Arles (2008). Her work has won several awards and can be found in several public collections (FRAC Auvergne, FRAC Franche-Comté, FNAC). Winner of the Institut pour la photographie de Lille research program (2021) and of the BNF national commission “Radioscopie de la France” (2022), the artist published a monograph with Editions Loco in 2019, La nuit craque sous nos doigts, accompanied by a play by Christophe Fiat. His work was exhibited at the Mulhouse Photography Biennial.