Exhibition - "Ensemble" (Together) by Denis Darzacq

The exhibition "Ensemble"("Together") at the cultural center "Arsenal" in Metz (France) presents very interesting photos from the series realised by Denis Darzacq. 
Darzacq's project lasted 15 years and shows the reflection of the artist on the often precarious place of the individuals in the contemporary society. 
Even if the his way of photographing evolves, the body appears, since the beginning, as common denominator of Denis Darzacq's researches. 
The artist conceives the body as a real sculpture within the social environment. 
It is social sculpture because the body cannot be extracted from the context with which it interacts. 
The artist in fact uses it as the tool of a criticism of the difficulties and the stigmatisation that certain groups, particularly the young people of the disadvantaged districts or the disables, have still to face in our modern society.
Denis Darzacq's photography points out social's constraints and the contradictions.
He invites to affirm an identity which is more complex than the one imposed by the society and conquer a freedom that is often formally denied.

I personally liked a lot the message of the artist.

I believe that his work is very original and gives a strong input to the viewer hitting prejudices and helping to re-think the way we see the persons that are often considered to be marginal in our society.

He manages very well to discover the poetic side or simply the oddness of the "marginalised" and to express this artistically. 

In parallel with this quest, he is extremely attentive to the different ways the human body relates to the city space. 

I like a lot social documentary and I believe, like Denis Darzacq, that photography should be also used in order to expose social issues. And in my opinion, he did a great job in this respect.

However, I did not necessarily always liked his style of photography.

Sometimes, the narrative of his shots looks to me rather "minimalist" (eg. the last picture I published in my post).

On the contrary, above all in his series with disables persons, it is as if his photography had succeeded in giving new form and meaning "to the compassionate injunction look at disabilities in a new light".