JUSTICE: Thomas Klotz

“A means of containing the chatter and keeping only its compressed expressive charge. Thomas Klotz has decided not to play with what he knows so well, not to be a reporter of crimes and misdemeanours, but to find aesthetics in the ethics of his subject: a photography that is “just”. The words chosen by Michel Poivert to describe Justice, Thomas Klotz’s latest series, capture the atmosphere that unfolds along this long journey through the French judicial landscape. His photographs, exhibited at the Clémentine de la Féronnière gallery from 19 May to 31 July 2022, explore the spaces wherein justice is served: courtrooms, of course, but also magistrate’s offices, ministerial cabinets, prisons, archives… These images, charged with reserve, stand clear of all sensationalism: here, the violence of the stories and of the shattered lives remains latent, underground, invisible. The composition, the strength of colours and the play of textures prevail over the journalistic approach, allowing emotion to arise, before slowly emerging and imposing itself on the eye.

Confirming the colourist’s palette that marked his previous series, Northscape (2019), and Eve (2020), Thomas Klotz offers an all-encompassing and uncompromising look on justice, pointing out its paradoxes, at times its brutality, without ever sacrificing the aesthetic value of his photographs. The luminous serenity of sites of power, laden with solemnity, coexists with the austere nakedness of prison walls and the bare corridors of the courts. A few portraits rich in humanity, of a court clerk, a lawyer or a law student, scattered among the cold pristine spaces, give us a glimpse of the human presence diluted in the administrative machinery.

Thomas Klotz delivers a powerful, unexpected and confusing representation of the judicial system. Rather than documenting it, he chooses to throw us in and reproduce its atmosphere, bringing us face to face with the crude reality of this milieu, rarely addressed in photography.

This exhibition features Lambda prints and chromogenic prints ranging over 18 x 24 cm, 40 x 60 cm and 90 x 120 cm. The opening will be held on Thursday 19 May.