Since the 1970s, Paul-Armand Gette has created a singular body of work rooted in a constant obsession with landscape in relation to the idea of Nature and the positions of models in photographs. As a result, he has created scores of images which he gathers under the name Cinématographies. 

Cinématographies is what we could call an “attempt to classify a photographic ensemble”. It represents the a collection, an archive built from observation. But what about the subject being observed? What about the “model” we mentioned earlier? Paul-Armand Gette is an entomology enthusiast; it is his interest in natural science that prompted him - as an artist - to cast a scientific eye over Nature (which he studies meticulously) and what constitutes it.

Consequently, he undertook the task of photographing young girls in places whose “natural” aspect could be considered as more or less modified. Parks, seaside locations, botanical gardens, bedrooms and living rooms are all used as backdrops for his various studies.

In addition to the self-evident quality of the images brought together in Gette's Cinématographies, what surfaces is the intimate character of the black and white and/or colour photographs which, appearing one after the other, create as many sequences as inevitable narratives. Young girls are pictured performing gestures which emphasise the “natural” aspect of the surrounding environment. They pick flowers in a park or collect shells on the beach, they name species in a botanical garden or allow their hair to be ruffled by a gentle breeze. The girls point a finger at Nature. But are they not also a part of it?

This is what may suggests the few details inserted in Paul-Armand Gette's Cinématographies.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8p20aq