Alain Laboile Français, 1968
Métamorphe, 2022
Archival pigment print
120 x 150 cm
47 1/4 x 59 in
47 1/4 x 59 in
Edition of 4 plus 2 artist's proofs
50 x 74 cm
19 3/4 x 29 1/8 in
19 3/4 x 29 1/8 in
Edition of 6 plus 2 artist's proofs
Alain Laboile’s latest photograph of his son offers a hauntingly poetic meditation on our relationship with nature. Captured from a bird's-eye view, the image reveals a young man half submerged...
Alain Laboile’s latest photograph of his son offers a hauntingly poetic meditation on our relationship with nature. Captured from a bird's-eye view, the image reveals a young man half submerged in still water, his thin body emerging in quiet equilibrium. Prominent antlers crown his head, evoking the ancient figure of Cernunnos—the Celtic god of nature and fertility. The dark, reflective water and the faint trace of forest above suggest a world both real and mythical, where boyhood's physical immersion in the wild begins to shift into a more spiritual, internal connection. Laboile captures this liminal moment with striking sensitivity: the transition from growing up within nature to carrying it within oneself.