Soledad Senlle Art Foundation

PHILIPPE DOLLO
photography

BONNIE ORLEANS & MARISOL FERRADAS
installations

Opening 2 November 5 - 8 pm

Born in Paris in 1965, freelance photographer since 1990, Philippe Dollo has collaborated on numerous newspapers, magazines and collective books. His work has been widely published and exhibited, and forms part of the permanent collection of the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. His first book, ‘’L’île Dollo’’ with French author Frédéric-Yves Jeannet, was published by Editions Léo Scheer, Paris France, in March 2005. Settled in New York since 1997, he currently lives in Brooklyn with his family.

'Philippe Dollo is the eye slipping in and stepping about to track down those brief moments of complicity, doubt, difficulty, anxiety or confrontation that are drowned in the rapid sequence of events of a very particular day, this unique passage in the history of a couple, this gathering of close ones that will never happen again.'

Celine Curiol, Author

"At the foot of the building the limousine awaits to depart for the church, the synagogue, the temple or simply the garden of a restaurant, a park, a beach or a rooftop in the shadow of the Empire State Building. In the United States you can get married anywhere you like and New York offers possibilities for every fantasy. Each time again the preparation of the bride is an intimate moment of discrete sensuality. Even if the light is low, I try my luck without a flash. Against the sunlight, mirror reflections, hand movements around an immobile face. I sneak off to see the groom; the ambiance is more collegiate. "I am counting on you to get good shots of the girls preparing themselves, I am not allowed there". The pressure gradually mounts. It will reach its culminating point just before the ceremony. Much later, after the cocktail hour, dinner, the speeches between the courses and the last rituals, the pressure will burst into freedom on the dance floor. Flashes of light crackle; the French photographer has become an Italian paparazzi. Brutally the orchestra announces the last dance and the bride and groom suddenly realise they have not seen the long day go by. Amongst the banging of the folding of the chairs I put away the cameras and count my rolls of film again. Except for the memories, they will be the only thing left.”

The day is always rich with instants simply waiting to be captured and which will turn the photographic memory into something precious. Much humility is required to catch those moments. With the omnipresence of doubt and in the absence of certitudes, you have to let natural forces guide you. The doors will only open when it is time, when the conditions are brought together. Then I can blossom and openly love. Much more than a simple job, photography is a true philosophy, a demanding but liberating martial art...an art of living.”

Philippe Dollo, September 2007