12/23/15

DEVOTED: MALE IN TAHITI

PRESENTS

DEVOTED:
 MALE IN TAHITI
PHOTOGRAPHY 
BY
 VERNER DEGRAY





 opening reception~
January 9, 2016 
7 pm till 9pm

on display thru february 4th, 2016

antebellum hollywood is please to present the first california exhibit of art photographer
 VERNER DEGRAY.
A native of a small village of Picardy, France~Verner Degray  first learned photography by his mother. He recalls her images of plants and landscapes. 
Photography followed him to his Baccalauréat (French high school diploma). On the advice of his art teacher, Verner presented his photography to an art jury, which earned him the highest mark in visual art. He continued his studies in interior design at Créapole Esdi Design Management, where he specializes in theatrical decor. He practices in this area for a few years before being hired by fashion companies~ Hugo and Kenzo. 

After working in the fashion industry for 4 years, Verner decided to look for a better quality of life. It was in French Polynesia that he found the sweetness of life: 
"I found this humanity. We are at the creation stage of a people. "  

  Verner fell in love with the islands, " much like Gauguin and Matisse in the 19th centuries. Instead of curvaceous women, carved gods or cutouts palm fronds, Degray focuses on objects of his desire: handsome Tahitian men. 
 Rather than the hardcore erotica of European and American photography, 
Degray’s subjects still maintain a purity, "where the erotic is part of the everyday, part of a young man’s rite of passage. "    

 Of his work, Verner says~
 "it is to highlight the man in contrast with the chaotic scene. People ask me why I do not take a picture of my models on beautiful beaches. For me it's as if we put together a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. The gaze is lost in this representation of the beauty and both lose their value.   For me a photo should be thought. 
I'm not a reporter, I'm a photographer. I will not take 8000 photos to finally produce only 2 good ones.  Before a shoot, I look at pictures of my subjects. Then comes a story, feelings, emotions. I write them. down. I talk with my models. I know them. 
I need to be close to them in order to create a story.     
What I have known in my life affect my art today. "

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