Juliette Agnel

Juliette Agnel, a photographic artist, centers her practice on exploring the tangible and invisible within landscapes. After a master’s degree in fine arts and ethno-aesthetics in 1997, she studied at the École nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, delving into chemical techniques and processes. In 2011, Agnel innovated by creating her own digital camera obscura.

Agnel’s work is enriched by her numerous travels. Guided by intuition, she explores Norway, Iceland, Korea, and Dogon country, seeking aesthetic and sensory experiences. In territories marked by human presence and the telluric forces, Agnel uses distinctive framing and photographic techniques to capture her impressions of these remote landscapes.

In her series Nocturnes, initiated in 2016, Agnel’s photographs present themselves as temporal fissures: shots of starry skies superimposed on those capturing arid and historical landscapes. Her approach aims to capture the image perceived by the human eye while unveiling the invisible, a common thread during her odyssey in Northern Sudan, departing from Khartoum.

For seven nights and seven days, Agnel traversed the desert, watching archaeological remnants slowly emerge under her lens. Immersed in capturing dunes and star-filled skies, she reached the temple of Amun and the pyramid of Meroe, an ancient Nubian city whose familiarity marked the journey’s apex. This exploration, fraught with dangers and physical challenges, led Agnel to a transcendent experience. She distills this profound journey, both inward and outward, into her nocturnal photographs, devoid of human presence, capturing its very essence.

Now represented by the Clémentine de la Ferronnière gallery, her series was exhibited at the Van Gogh Foundation in Arles, “Van Gogh and the Stars”.