Claude Riou's photographic work revolves around gesture, matter and time.
His series — dedicated to artisans, faces, sea or wildlife — explore the relationship between humans and their environment.
Natural light, in black and white as well as in colour, is a central tool for image construction.
In a demanding photographic approach, he documents real situations by seeking to restore density, trace and memory.
Works exhibited
REMANENCES
« What the matter holds »
This series explores the traces that time and human gesture fit into matter.
Skin, canvas, fibres, metal: each surface preserves something that it has experienced. The light reveals these traces, the reliefs, the tensions and the marks of use, until it creates a dialogue between the human body and the materials it shapes.
These five photographs do not tell a place, but a presence. They invite you to look at what remains when the gesture is interrupted: a texture, a tension, a wear and tear, a memory.
Remanences is thus a search of what light makes appear and what matter silently chooses to retain.
Recent exposures
2025/11 – National Exhibition of Fine Arts – Boulogne Billancourt – Photography Prize
2025/10 and 2024/10 – Automne – Paris
2025/01 – Galerie La Ville a des Arts – Paris (Exhibition solo)
2024/12 – Salon National des Beaux Arts – Réfectoire des Cordeliers – Paris – Silver Medal of the Jury Guest
2024/06 – Salon National des Beaux Arts – Orangerie du Sénat – Paris
2024/02 - Los Angeles Art Show – USA
2024/02 – Salon des Artistes Français / Art Capital – Paris – Hahnemühle Prize
