[Focus] – Alain Duchesne, The Flow Of Seven Days – VII

Photography, digital print on paper, 92.5 × 61.5 cm, 2011.

With The Flow Of Seven Days – VII, Alain Duchesne develops a highly controlled yet sensitive artistic process, where material, time, and inner states are inseparable.

The work belongs to a series conceived as a temporal cycle: seven images corresponding to seven days of doubt, effort, failure, and learning.

Duchesne constructs the scene from replicas of acacia thorns in epoxy resin and lacquer, assembling them in an apparently chaotic structure before photographing them in macro. This choice of scale transforms vegetal fragments into an immersive landscape, where sharpness, fragility, and tension become almost physical. The act of photographing is not documentary but interpretative, translating an internal experience into a visual rhythm.

Light, color, and reflection are carefully orchestrated. Iridescent surfaces catch the eye, slow it down, and invite prolonged attention. The image does not aim for resolution or harmony, but for presence. It captures a suspended moment within an ongoing process, where repetition of gestures and acceptance of uncertainty are central.

Rooted in Duchesne’s background in art direction, the work demonstrates a precise control of form, while deliberately opening space for intuition and poetry. The photograph becomes a trace of lived time, a visual meditation on vulnerability, endurance, and the quiet transformation that occurs through sustained practice.