ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Like a dense fog, these images pull you into a vortex of calm, aligning with the synchronicities of nature without ignoring the complexities. My goal isn’t to capture or reproduce a moment, but to generate a new - and quite different - moment. To see properly it is necessary to remove. the obstacles. Removing objects from their context causes a disruption. This disruption creates an opportunity for an immediate emotional reaction to the place itself. The image is not necessarily ‘of’ something. Instead, it provides a space for viewers to experience their own emotional responses. Freed from the constraints of context, I aim to create images of stillness, portals that invite people to apply their own interpretation. I find fascinating the tension between the mind (which struggles to understand the image) and the body (which experiences the emotions evoked by the piece).

AUTHOR
Photography, as with most arts, is the exploration of a vision, an interpretation of what is seen or perhaps even unseen. My recent photographs utilize a strong graphic element with liberal use of negative space to eliminate the clutter - the distractions in an effort to see more clearly what is before us. Once the superfluous has been removed, what is left is more open to contemplation - a meditation freed from some of the chaos that surrounds us.

Garnier's award winning work has been shown in museums, academic institutions, and galleries in the United States, Europe and China and is in the permanent collection of many museums including LACMA and has been featured at the Smithsonian.

Born in Los Angeles with a Master’s in French Literature from UC Santa Barbara
Garnier’ circuitous road led him into the photographic world some 20 years ago.
Since then he has developed many projects and books including: The Legacy Project - a 15 year documentation of the El Toro Marine base which includes the making of the World’s Largest Photograph, Second Chances - a five year exploration of the disappearing landscapes and man’s relationship to the environment in the Mojave desert, Revival – a visual observation on man’s struggles to live with nature, A Deconstructed Odyssey – an investigation into the politics of space by eliminating the clutter from building facades and most recently Hymns to the Silence – poetic architectural abstractions meant to still the chaos and foster a ‘new way of seeing.’

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