For Bertrand Lisbonis, photography is first and foremost a way of exploring light and matter, making visible what ordinarily lies beyond the reach of the eye. Light, and the compositional possibilities it offers, stands at the very heart of his practice. His ambition is to reconnect with the experiments of Le Secq, Marville and Baldus, creating images of rare sensitivity in which time itself appears suspended.In this sense, Lisbonis places himself within a tradition he believes never fully came to fruition: that of the Pictorialists. Yet he distances himself from those who sought to transform photography into painting. Instead, he advocates a language that is unmistakably photographic while embracing the extraordinary tonal richness made possible by the Fresson carbon printing process.He also returns to the favourite subject of his predecessors – architecture - but the austerity of these images and their initially demanding appearance should never obscure the emotional intelligence with which they are conceived.For more than a decade, Bertrand Lisbonis has worked almost exclusively with a large-format view camera, producing his prints using the Fresson carbon process, renowned among specialists for its remarkable expressive possibilities.All this might have remained little more than a meticulous technical exercise were it not for the genuine sensitivity that emerges from it. From this union has grown a body of work that never relies on spectacle or dramatic effect, but instead invites the viewer to cultivate an awareness of subtle worlds accessible only through deliberate attention.For Bertrand Lisbonis, the photograph is never a site of visual excess or confusion, but a private and intimate realm in which a quiet, deeply cultivated and profoundly moving humanism finds its truest expression.By Patrick Favardin

Graduated with a State Diploma in Photography from the EFET in 1986, Bertrand Lisbonis developed from the outset a photographic practice dedicated to exploring hidden, underground, and marginal territories.Over the years, Bertrand Lisbonis deepened a photographic approach that moved beyond the confines of strict documentary practice, embracing an inner dimension, the creative act, and a more sensitive engagement with the world.Since 2005, Bertrand Lisbonis has been pursuing a long-term photographic project in India, focusing on landscape and portraiture, working primarily with an 8×10 large-format view camera.