In her series Observatoires, Noémie Goudal places stairs, pyramids and domes in natural, isolated, timeless spaces.
At first sight, Noémie Goudal’s photographs appear to depict ambiguous, hard-to-situate spaces that, though placid, are thoroughly uncanny. In Observatories, 2014, lone staircases and pyramids float like ruins from a long-dead, postapocalyptic civilization. All of these strange and imposing architectural forms, however, are actually flimsy, two-dimensional props.
Although the sharply focused, nearly surreal images are reminiscent of digital manipulation, they are in fact analogue photos which have been very precisely shot. Goudal’s working method demands an exceptionally concentrated and patient approach as her images are created under very specific conditions. The final works generate tension due to the incongruous proportions in the image which are only revealed in very subtle ways.
