PAN

PAN
Patrice Dion, Fabien Ribery

The book PAN was born in a garden during a summer, year 2020. Using tree leaves such as catalpa, amaranth, japanese mulberry, vine… the photographer and gardener Patrice Dion reveals his images thanks to the action of the sun on the clorophyll of tree leaves: he calls that the helio-chlorophyll-type.

Using nor chemicals neither electricity, he gradually improves his process and ends up obtaining a precise image on each tree leaf used instead of a photosensitive paper. That approach echoes the photographic experimentations of anthotype. Other contemporary photographers use the same technique, such as Japanese artist Hiro Chiba and American-Vietnamese photographer Binh Danh.

The very essence of the book PAN is to create a harmonious beauty by revealing the relationship between the thin tree leaf as the support for photographs, and the sheet of paper chosen for the image reproduction. It is all about feeling the same sensation that our fingers can feel when touching a natural leaf.

Printed on a very delicate paper (Pergamenata) or on a textured paper (Arena Natural), each photograph follows curves and veins, catching here and there a memory, a sensation, an encounter that each leaf seems to preserve tenderly in the hollow of its veins.

Throughout the pages, a visual storytelling is discovered: certain details of characters, animals and abstract figures in the photographs, are isolated and put in relation with eachother. Readers are then immersed in a dreamlike and sensual atmosphere which echoes the inherent fragility of nature, its ephemeral essence.

A few poetic sentences written by Fabien Ribery, author and creator of L’Intervalle, complete the whole sensory and intimate experience.

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Technical features

• Release date: 18 August 2022
• Photographies et textes : Patrice Dion
• Lignes poétiques : Fabien Ribery
• Design graphique : Nolwen Lauzanne
• Book format : 18 x 25,5 cm / Weight : 0,7kg
• 96 pages  – 43 photographies (couleur)
• French edition
• Hard cover on Fedrigoni Arena Rough Natural 120gr – sewn glued square back
• 64 pages on Fedrigoni Arena Rough Natural 140gr and 32 pages on Fedrigoni Pergamenata Natural 90gr
• ISBN : 9791095118220
• Public price: 39 €

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Press and booksellers' comments

« […] il faut fermer les yeux et sentir sous ses doigts la texture des pages de Pan. L’ingénieuse maison d’édition Light Motiv a imaginé un ouvrage qui se découvre par le toucher. Trois types de papier ont été utilisés pour reproduire au plus près la texture du végétal et la transparence de certaines feuilles. Le livre, se transformant ainsi en arbre, marque sa déférence à la nature même du papier. »

Alexandra Nawawi dans Polka Magazine (n°58)

« Patrice Dion, photographe et jardinier, a donné naissance à Pan dans un jardin en 2020. Avec une technique photographique qu’il a mise au point et grâce au seul effet des rayons du soleil, il parvient à faire apparaitre ses photographies sur des feuilles d’arbres.
Un travail magnifique et fascinant. »

Caroline de la Librairie des Halles (Niort)

“In 2020, Patrice Dion was confined to his home, in the region of Toulouse, among the trees he had planted on his land twenty-five years earlier. Based on his experience in alternative ancient photographic processes, he tried an experiment on leaves. He discovered that, when freshly cut and exposed under a glass to the sun, tree leaves lighten up in the sun light: it is therefore necessary to affix a positive countertype to obtain a positive image. […] That method is a modest art, a sensory experience that questions our ecological footprint and its consequences on future generations. »

Julien Bolle dans Réponses Photo (n°353 – octobre 2022)