Laurent Loubet Guiter
FRAGMENTS OF LIGHT AND MEMORY
My name is Laurent Loubet Guiter, I'm 62 years old, and I've been practicing photography since I was 20, somewhat by chance when my mother gave me her Leica SLR camera. Already a story of family tradition. I initially photographed my loved ones, my family, spontaneously, instinctively as they say. Then, over time, my practice became more defined, taking a more intimate, introspective path, with a particular taste for research, experimentation, the "happy accidents" that chance brings, the imperfections and flaws of old processes, and the analog processing of images.
Laurent Loubet Guiter "Fragments of Light and Memory"
Subscribe and read about photography! This will help us to produce more quality material exclusively for our subscribers!
By clicking on the button, you consent to the processing of your personal data
Fragments of Light and Memory
My first exhibition at the Manifesto Festival in Toulouse in 2021 stemmed from a project exploring memory, family, and lineage. Old letters from my grandfather, found at the bottom of a box, eventually became transparent from being read so often. But the memory remains. These stories and tales told by my grandmother, real or imagined, have always nourished my imagination. And yet, there was a void: aside from these letters and this oral family tradition, there were almost no photographs to bear witness to this history.
"Et vous que devenez vous " Reading these words from my grandfather, I felt the need to explore this story, to bear witness to this attachment, this lineage, and to respond through my portraits and landscapes, revealing an imagined vision of this family fiction. I wanted to compensate for this double absence (of my grandfather and of the photographs) by combining these words with my images to forge a kind of intergenerational dialogue, to simply try to answer the question, "And what about you, what has become of you?"
My first exhibition at the Manifesto Festival in Toulouse in 2021 stemmed from a project exploring memory, family, and lineage. Old letters from my grandfather, found at the bottom of a box, eventually became transparent from being read so often. But the memory remains. These stories and tales told by my grandmother, real or imagined, have always nourished my imagination. And yet, there was a void: aside from these letters and this oral family tradition, there were almost no photographs to bear witness to this history.
"Et vous que devenez vous " Reading these words from my grandfather, I felt the need to explore this story, to bear witness to this attachment, this lineage, and to respond through my portraits and landscapes, revealing an imagined vision of this family fiction. I wanted to compensate for this double absence (of my grandfather and of the photographs) by combining these words with my images to forge a kind of intergenerational dialogue, to simply try to answer the question, "And what about you, what has become of you?"
"Through imperfect images and fading processes, I seek to rebuild memory and answer those who came before me".
In 2025, I decided to attend the Milk Masterclass to help me develop a new project, to construct a narrative from a new body of images and texts. This process led me to meet Manijeh Nouri Ortega, translator of the Persian poem “The Conference of the Birds.” From our conversations emerged the idea for an exhibition planned for 2026 and the project for a book, “La vallée de la stupeur / The Valley of Stupefaction.”
The Valley of Stupefaction is inspired by the famous 12th-century Sufi tale, “The Conference of the Birds.” This foundational text of Persian culture recounts how the birds embarked on a quest to find a mythical bird, the Simorgh, in order to make it their king. At the end of a mystical and existential journey, they discover that the Simorgh is none other than themselves: “The sun of my majesty is a mirror. He who sees himself in this mirror sees his soul and his body.”
In this existential and mystical quest, the birds traverse seven valleys, including the Valley of Stupefaction, which inspired this series of photographs as well as the photo book project.
The Valley of Stupefaction is inspired by the famous 12th-century Sufi tale, “The Conference of the Birds.” This foundational text of Persian culture recounts how the birds embarked on a quest to find a mythical bird, the Simorgh, in order to make it their king. At the end of a mystical and existential journey, they discover that the Simorgh is none other than themselves: “The sun of my majesty is a mirror. He who sees himself in this mirror sees his soul and his body.”
In this existential and mystical quest, the birds traverse seven valleys, including the Valley of Stupefaction, which inspired this series of photographs as well as the photo book project.