Didier Massard at Julie Saul - New York

For his second New York solo show, "Artificial Paradise," French photographer Didier Massard presented staged landscapes that demonstrate more than dazzling technical gimmickry. The point was underscored by a selection of prints from his "Imaginary Journeys" series (1993-97), which were on view near the gallery's entrance. Featuring such totems as the Sphinx, a windmill or a pagoda set in lonely environments with airbrushed skies or pearly moons, these older scenes read as somewhat formulaic--albeit stunning--compositions concerned with glossy perfection above all else.

The newer, large-format work (47 by 37 inches), however, is more suggestive, with dramatic foliage and misty environments that bring to mind the Romantic canvases of Caspar David Friedrich. In Rocks and Trees (2002), an eerie image devoid of references to human presence, craggy mountaintops emerge from dense clouds and isolated trees crown the tallest peaks. Like the set of a fantastical film, this breathtaking scene, created using miniatures and computer effects, is too improbable to be true, yet is stirring to behold.

Elsewhere, Massard reveals more painterly motives. In the elegant Waterfall (2001), for instance, he digitally inserted a tree with pink blossoms on the side of a cliff to add a touch of color. This image, along with the other recent works, recalls traditional Japanese landscape paintings, in which the artists imposed order and formal control upon nature.

Ultimately, the work is about contemporary photography, not historical painting. Massard's virtuosity with lighting, evident in Spring Tree (2003), in which the sun shines like a spotlight on the gloriously blooming subject, echoes Gregory Crewdson's cinematic flair. He also seems to share the field with James Casebere, who likewise stages haunting, arguably plausible scenes. With his moody images, Massard suggests that photography has fully adopted painting's role and has traded in the presentation of actuality for the manufacturing of aura.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group