CYNTHIA CAPPE

EXHIBITIONS
Permanently exhibited at the Galerie W, Paris.

2009
Sélectionnée au concours "Photo d’Hôtel, Photo d’Auteur" des hôtels Paris Rive Gauche
Révélation 3, foire de photographie contemporaine à Paris

2008
Ecart international, Paris.

2007
Guangzhou Photo Biennial, China. Exhibition catalog

2006
Cynthia arrived at the Galerie W, Paris.
Mois de la photo offset fair with Fetart, Paris.
Les Indépendances Festival, Enghien les Bains.

COLLECTIONS
HSBC Foundation for Photography, Paris.
Private collections

2009 “Miniature”
Transforming in miniature - smaller than magic mushrooms. Finding again the disproportion of the sight of childhood. Arranging disproportionate shots. Cynthia Cappe ventures in deserted amusement parks and plays with scales.

2009 « Enfance » (Childhood)
Always a confined space in which the image immobilises the body of a woman. A woman dressed as an adult but with childish carriages. The triangular framing of the stage is materialised by the two walls at the corner of a room and the ceiling. It underlines the imprisonment. The unrest of an adult life, the pain caused by a disappeared childhood, the torment of changes imposed by life to a one and only person. The result is really moving.

2007 “Couple 66”
Cynthia Cappe shows an odd attraction for deserted places. With her series, “Couple 66”, she tackles this subject through the vision of a couple. She ventures on the mythic road 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles and locates places marked by time. To awake and update a coloured past with her pictures. She exhibits her own couple like in the 50-60s photographs and movies. By showing moments full of tensions and synonymous of expectancy, Cynthia Cappe puts into question the evolution of a couple towards a shared fulfilment.

2007-2009 « Natures mortes », (Still Life)
During her road-trips, Cynthia Cappe faces unpredictable situations. She meets animals from the forest, run over by drivers and left lifeless on the side of the road. Death, though an integral part of nature, is a taboo subject. Self-censorship of the sight. In order to tackle this subject, Cynthia Cappe imposes herself a framing. Each picture is composed of road lines and determined by the position of the animal. The photograph makes the dead animal a beautiful thing to see by underlining its composition or decomposition. This fetishist approach brings the animal back to life through beauty. Cynthia also plays with the quirky nature and the phantasmagoria of the situation. Because these animals from the forest first step inside the human understanding via tale-telling… The only contact they get in with man proves fatal to them.

2007 « Vieilles piscines » (Old swimming-pools)
The swimming-pool is a florid memory of the past. Teens spent in pools – Cynthia Cappe is a former swimmer specialised in synchronised swimming. Time has run out. The pool has freed itself from the tracks of training and synchronised swimming competitions. It turns out to be light, subtle and feminine. Getting rid of water and swimmers, the pool transforms in a safe and quiet haven. It becomes synonymous of voluptuousness. Invaded by vegetation and silence, eased by time, the pool reveals its beauty.

2006 « Chiens de garde » (Guard dogs)
Cynthia Cappe dreams of fairyland and freedom. She left Paris for Strasburg to meet dwarfs. The inhabitants of gardens. One of the few places where people can let their decorative fancies run wild. But along the way, Cynthia Cappe comes face to face with other tenants: guard dogs. They defend their territory, keep watching but do not bark. They are made of ceramics. No matter the social origin of the places’ owners, these dogs – put down there, frozen – spread – amusingly and poetically – a feeling of security. Here again, Cynthia Cappe feels the quirky nature of the situation.

2005 « Baigneuses », (Girls Swimming)
Contemporary women frozen in an old setting. Both build a link between two periods. Cynthia Cappe appropriates the memories of a moment – freed by paid leaves. This series is the first in which people outside of her intimacy are made visible. She presents the whole place – an old swimming-pool – and recreates an authentic scene. With the position of the characters, Cynthia Cappe shoots an old time as if she were writing a postcard.

2005-2009 « Traces » (Tracks)
This series creates a temporal relation between two periods and brings out the florid memory of an old time. Places, colours and flowers… And deserted places, direct witnesses of the past, full of their stories. It reveals tracks that remain but also fade away slowly as time goes by.

2005 « Plages » (Beaches)
The beach with its sun umbrella, its tents and caravans rooted for years in the seaside. They have learned how to be patient, looking at the time that passes. A metaphor of time and our memories.

2004 « Autoportrait au miroir », (Self-portrait in the mirror)
This series was shot in different deserted places and relies on the mirror as a link between an environment, a ruined reality and the moment of a dream. Through this series, Cynthia Cappe engages in a shooting game: she confronts her image to self-questioning.

2004 « Corps aux sanitaires », (Bodies in the bathroom)
“Corps aux sanitaires” is a series of nude black and white photographs – subject of a diploma delivered by the ICART-Photo School. Dehumanized bodies show uncomfortable positions so as to fit in several watering places. The series received the Prize of Discovering of the European Festival of Nude Photography in 2004.