Pierre Gonnord

PIERRE GONNORD (France, 1963).
"Soho", from the series "City", New York, 2001.
Photograph, copy 1/5.
Signed, dated, numbered, titled and located on the back.
With label on the back of the Juana de Aizpuru Gallery.
Measurements: 150 x 150 cm.
Considered one of the most talented photographers of recent times, Pierre Gonnord imbues his work with a melancholic and heartbreaking aura that "narrates, under the skin, singular and unusual stories about our times", according to the critic Rafael Doctor. His portraits, reminiscent of the great masters of art history such as Rembradt, Veermer, Caravaggio, Goya, Zurbarán and Velázquez, focus on the outcasts of society and their stories. In his works we find vagrants, mentally ill people, prisoners and the blind, but also monks, geishas and members of urban gangs, i.e. people who also remain on the fringes of their society in a different way.
A prominent French photographer born in Cholet, Pierre Gonnord has lived in Madrid since 1988, and currently works in collaboration with the prestigious Juana de Aizpuru gallery. A self-taught artist and winner of the 2007 Community of Madrid Culture Prize, in 1998 Gonnord began a personal project, which defines his mature language, centred on the human face. The first series in this new style were "Interiors" (Madrid, 1999) and "City" (New York, 2001), derived from his own urban experience. Later he will make new series, already with characters of different ethnicities: "Regards" (2002-2003), "Far East" (Japan, 2003) and "Utopians" (2004-2005). In these last series, Gonnord approaches characters marginalised by society, portraying them in close-ups. In his latest series, "Witnesses", he has approached the world of the gypsies and the people who have lived through the tragedies of the Balkans and North Africa. Throughout his career, Gonnord has held exhibitions of his work in Spain, France and the United States, among other countries, both in galleries and in museums and art centres, including the Centro Cultural Conde Duque in Madrid, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville, the University of Salamanca, the Atelier des Forges in Arles, the FRAC of Auvergne-Ecuries in Chazerat and the photographic festivals of Helsinki and Oslo. Today he is mainly represented in the Juana de Aizpuru gallery, but his work can also be found in other important collections, such as that of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.