SELECTED WORKS
我是
I AM.
A portrait of a generation.
"I am proud to be who I am. I am proud of my look. I AM."
There is a phenomenon in Hong Kong where young tourists come to take photos and act like supermodels.
The vast majority are young women. From cool hip-hop style, to sweet girl-next-door style, people choose to dress up stylishly for the photos.
There are a few places in Hong Kong which are “must-go photo spots”.
People queue up to take pictures
They respectfully wait until the previous ones have finished taking the photos before taking their place
They strike poses, and act as professional models. Here, the model directs the photo shoot.
They have a very precise idea of the results they want to have.The photographer is purely here to press the shutter button.
The model has full control of the images.
After a few poses, the model checks the results, gives their instructions to the photographer, and the process starts again.It’s an immutable ballet.
I invite them to pose for me, and to be models.
The session is very quick, around ten photos in a minute or two.
HOPE
An original art installation from Cyril Delettre
Inspired by his series HOPE (on going since 2022), art photographer Cyril Delettre settles an original installation for you to experiment physically entering the art piece.
Cyril Delettre's installation symbolises human ability to transform darkness into colors : you enter the Black and White portrait to go through the bright hidden hopes and reach the colorful character. On the path, entering somebody else’s spririt, Cyril Delettre invites you to go through her HOPE and rediscover yours.
HOPE series is a momentum.
“I would like to challenge the new generation, the 20’s who face the future.
Who are you and who will you be ?
You read everywhere “There is no more future !”
My statement:
Nothing is written. Never underestimate who you are and what you can do to change the world !
I refuse to give up. You new generation have all right and necessity to believe that there is still option for a bright future.
Embrace the world with enthusiasm and change it, you have this power.
Otherwise there is no more light to hope.
The exhibition spreads positive energy to all of us as a community.
Artistic choice:
I wanted to create a portrait in motion, similar as a ballet.
It represents the multiple emotions of the 20 years old generation facing the possibilities of their/our futures.
Each of their choice is world impacting, a challenge for the model but also for all of us as a community.
The dark portraits reflect the uncertainty of their times but each one backs onto a bright colour and a positive thought.
The air goes through as it waves the Tibetan prayers book : the wind unveils and spread the positive attitude.”
Walk Don’t Walk
I caught people lost in their thoughts at the crosswalk.
Stripped of any representation of themselves, they simply wait. I observe them as if they were on stage, each one carrying a thousand stories.
Time is suspended, it is an irreducible wait.
They are almost motionless. Between them and my lens, the flow of trams and buses creates a veil.
I try to contrast the speed of the city to the suspended time of the individuals, stopped in their tracks for this short moment.
For me, this is a symbolic image of Hong Kong, where the times overlap.
– Cyril Delettre
Wild City
My photographic walks in Hong Kong have led me to play with the streets. I have invited the ink paintings of Grand So, a street artist on Hollywood Road whom I meet daily, into my photographs. I wanted to animate the walls captured in my photographs with his animals on recycled paper, mixing contemporary Western architecture with traditional Chinese animals, concrete with paper, urban pollution with recycled materials, my gaze in motion with his timeless work.
It is a game on the mixing of times, places, and cultures; it is an image of the richness of the encounter.
– Cyril Delettre
All artworks in Wild City are unique pieces.