Lot 238: PHILIPPE RAMETTE

PHILIPPE RAMETTE B. 1961 'CRISE DE DÉSINVOLTURE' (CRISIS CASUALLY) chromogenic print, flush-mounted, a Galerie Xippas, Paris, label, signed in ink and with title and edition '1/5' in letterpress, on the reverse, framed, 2003 58½ by 47 in. (148.6 by 119.4 cm.)

The surreal photograph offered here depicts the artist suspended above the ground and standing on a stone wall at what appears to be an unrealizable angle. This gravity-defying image is not conceived through skilled digital manipulation. Rather, Philippe Ramette's improbable and often humorous images are the result of attentive planning and intricate set creation. Ramette, first a sculptor and second a photographer, approaches the creation of each image with the use of detailed sketches, not unlike storyboards used in film. Custom-built hidden structural supports are crafted to buttress the photographer in his physically impossible scenarios. As in Crise de Désinvolture, the photographer always appears in a black suit incongruous to the backdrop depicted.