Switzerland, born in 1987

Following on from the series, Unusual View of Unknown Subjects, the project Etudes de vitesse [Studies of speed] by Simon Rimaz presents remnants of pictures for the press that remained on the cutting-room floor. The artist collects from various international dailies unique and unpublished silver prints showing motor races, reprinting them on a vast format. The new image is then cropped and the area published removed — an act that thus deprives the picture of its principal subject. Now reduced to functioning as a frame, the mutilated photographs oblige viewers to turn their attention to the setting or background. Enlarging these hollowed-out images emphasizes their materiality.

The chief protagonist in Rimaz’s photographs is thus the extraneous, what lies out of shot. Through the blurred background — out of focus, since the camera is fixed on the speeding car —, the photographer offers a study of the search for movement and its visual and sensory perception that has formed an integral part of the aesthetics of modern photography since the famous picture taken by Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894 – 1986) at the Grand Prix Automobile Club de France in 1912.

School
CEPV – Ecole de photographie de Vevey, Vevey, Suisse, 2008 – 2014

Website
www.simonrimaz.ch

Artwork
Simon Rimaz, Study No I, from the series Etudes de vitesse, 2013
Inkjet print
90 x 120 cm
© Simon Rimaz — CEPV