Dominique Cahier

In the 1970s, Dominique Cahier took part in the adventure of the gallery and publishing house Contrejour in Paris — a pivotal place where contemporary French photography was being forged. There, he met a generation of artists determined to see photography recognized as a major art form. But life, with its turns and responsibilities, drew him away from creation for a time. For several decades, Dominique Cahier carried the image within him, without producing it.

Ten years ago, the call of the gaze became irresistible. He picked up his camera again, with a newfound urgency, a freer breath. This time, it was no longer about capturing reality — but crossing through it, reinventing it, sometimes even erasing it. His photographic gesture became pictorial, intuitive, almost meditative. He puts it simply: “To photograph like a painter.”

Dominique Cahier explores blur, texture, and layering. He constantly experiments, often working on large formats where photography becomes a space for breathing. Silhouettes fade, landscapes slip between two states — between dream and memory, between appearance and disappearance. Blur becomes language. Abstraction becomes emotion.

When color emerges in his work, it harmonizes with deep emotion: muted blues, earthy browns, silent ochres. Light, more than revealing, caresses. Here, everything is suggestion, perception, reminiscence. The landscape becomes a state of mind, the figure a trace. Each piece seems to whisper.

Through this refined and demanding body of work, Dominique Cahier asserts a vision of the world where shadow matters as much as light — where we remember more than we see. He creates a poetic, suspended universe, at the threshold of the visible and the invisible.

A space of balance between technical mastery and emotional surrender. An invitation to slow down. To contemplate. To feel.