Raphaël Dallaporta

Raphaël Dallaporta
Period: 2014-2015
Profession: Photographer Raphaël Dallaporta was born in 1980. He won the ICP Infinity Award 2010 in New York and the Paul Huf Award 2011 from Foam in Amsterdam. His solo exhibitions include Raphaël Dallaporta, Observations, touring since 2011, and Antipersonnel, selected by Martin Parr at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2004. His work can be found in the collections of the Musée de l’Elysée (Lausanne), the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (FNAC) (Paris), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, (Châlon-sur-Saône) or the New York Public Library. Over the last ten years, he has developed a photographic approach that has been noted for its rigorous shooting protocols and documentary conviction. His long-term projects cover a wide range of human concerns. He has worked closely with deminers (Antipersonnel), lawyers (Domestic Slavery), forensic scientists (Fragile) and, more recently, archaeologists (Ruins). He bases his work on a scientific approach, questioning the empathy engendered by social issues and playing with the often varied status of a photographic image. His work aims to extricate photography from its documentary condition in order to release a symbolic vision. At Villa Medici, Raphaël Dallaporta is working on the Secrets project, which explores, in the form of a photographic narrative, the manifestations of Man’s obsession with Space. Initiated in 2012 in close collaboration with the CNES Space Observatory, the project aims to question our relationship with progress and memory. Following on from his previous work, the photographer will be collaborating with researchers, notably archaeologists from the École française de Rome, based on recent discoveries relating to the Domus aurea. Based on his observations of the excavations at the Vigna Barberini, he planned to create a contemplative work that, in its elaboration, would imitate the movements of the world. Here, he confirmed his documentary convictions, while at the same time pushing the boundaries of photography towards a narrative, even novelistic, dimension.