Gilles Lorin 1

I was born in Aix-en-Provence and grew up dividing my time between the French Alps and the South of France. I moved to the United States when I was a teenager and attended high school in Florida. While adapting to a completely new culture and language, I discovered new ways to express myself through painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography. Upon graduating, I attended Loyola University in Chicago, where I studied business, art history and applied arts. I quickly realized I wanted to pursue a career in the arts and moved to Paris, where I attended the Université Paris I - Sorbonne. I obtained the U.S. equivalence of a bachelor's degree and a masters with Honors (maitrise mention très bien) in Art History and Archeology.

In 1997 following my post-graduate studies, I qualified for an internship at Christie's, moved to London and began my work at the auctioneers' King Street salesrooms. Ultimately, I joined as a full-time specialist in Japanese art. It was a rich and memorable experience; I was able to see some of the most interesting artwork and learn from the most knowledgeable and passionate people. In 2001, I decided to return to the United States and joined my family's business, continuing to work with asian antiques.

My interest for photography goes back almost as far as I can remember; I recall as a young child being fascinated by my older brother's color darkroom in our basement, and by the time I was a teenager, I had converted my closet into a black and white darkroom. But it is not until I moved to New Orleans in 2004 that I discovered my photographic eye: after a nearly fatal car accident, all I could think of was taking pictures. The world looked different and I saw details I hadn't seen before. From there I started experimenting with all sorts of equipment and techniques, from digital to analog to alternative processes, which brought me to wet plate collodion. Wet plate collodion is undeniably an amazing process to capture someone's mood and emotions, and this has been an ongoing project of mine for the past two years. While these portraits were typically printed in albumen back in the late 1800's and early 1900's, I prefer the subtlety and tonal range of platinum-palladium and photogravure which remains at the core of most of my prints.

I now regard printmaking almost as important as taking photographs, and my interest has shifted from taking pictures to crafting images. Some may not see any difference between the two, but I do. I look at prints like objects, and I find that certain processes can greatly complement the aesthetic of a photograph, I enjoy working with labor-intensive and slow antique photographic processes, incorporating old techniques and equipment with new ones, and mixing them with contemporary or timeless subjects. I find that each of these mediums gives the specific portfolio a poetic impression yet tactile expression.