claude charlier


Claude Charlier was born in France and his childhood was heavily influenced by his training in classical music and fine art, which continues to inspire his aesthetic today. 

He maintained a career as a professional fashion & advertising  photographer which led him to travel the world for many years and live not only in Europe and the USA, but for many years in Tokyo.



BODY LANGUAGE

My idea for a series on “body language” began many years ago, when I was working on a photo story on traditional Japanese tattoos. I became engrossed in the notion of a body as a canvas and began playing with concepts related to that. Initially I was attracted to different forms of clothing and materials as a novel canvas, but the more I worked on fashion and advertising shoots, where women's bodies are covered by the expressions of designers.. the more frustrated I became with the idea of covering the human form with tailored fabrics of any kind. I wanted a woman's body to show its true beauty and sensuality and yet to be able to manipulate their skin and form to express my own ideas and inspiration.


RUBBISH

ART IS RUBBISH - RUBBISH IS ART

ONE MORNING, I took out a canvas and started to paint the cans I loved best, creating a series of paintings that I named: “Rubbish”.

One by one I deconstructed them totally in my mind and then tried to recreate the beauty I saw in each one, especially that of the light creating amazing, rich metallic reflections. That is why each painting is infused with gold, silver and copper pigments which I mix to try and show this unique light and beauty each of the cans I chose for this series holds for me.