Contact: Jacques Polony, 60 voie des Perraudières, 41700 Cour Cheverny, France
Tel: +33 (0) 2 54 79 81 17 Email: j.polony@claranet.fr
Contact Switzerland: artnet.ch – Christiane Franquin, 1268 Begnins, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 22 366 42 22 / +41 (0) 76 521 50 60 Email: info@artnet.ch
Biography
Jacques Polony was born in Le Mans, France, 24th February 1957
He became interested in photography at the age of nine, taking his first photographs with a camera given to him by his father for his birthday. At 12, he began developing his films in black and white and set up his studio in a bedroom in the family home.
At 17, he left for Paris to take his baccalaureate and study at the Faculty of Fine Arts at St. Charles.
In 1985, he left for the United States to work at the Los Angeles office of a French Press Agency. He spent some time in Beverly Hills as a portrait photographer of various television and cinema stars.
More
He returned permanently to Paris in 1996 to continue making portraits throughout Europe of couturiers (Kenzo, Courrèges, Cardin, Castelbajac and Vivienne Westwood), their financial backers (Donald Potard, Pierre Berger) and nightclub owners (Castel, Michou, Bernardin and Lova Moor).
For publicity purposes, he created still lifes for perfumers such as Oscar de la Renta and Lancôme.
In 1990, Jacques Polony launched an art studio with a friend who as a graphic artist initiatied him to the secrets of this trade. Together they produced marketing brochures, for, amongst others, the private aviation sector, Lancôme and Bandai.
From September 1990 through September 1999 Jacques lived between Brussels and Paris, continuing to develop new techniques offered by the advent of digital photography.
In January 2001, he decided to dedicate himself solely to his own creative work.
Jacques Polony – three facets
Photographic: this neologism passes almost unnoticed, so much does it integrate two types of expertise – a result of the technological revolution which, through the introduction of digital imagery, revolutionized the secular world of Nicéphore Niepce in just a few short years. Today, united by a single and selfsame tool, Jacques Polony’s two essential facets – those of the photographer and those of the graphic artist – are able to express themselves with a single voice.
The artist has engaged wholeheartedly with the digital revolution while not betraying an iota of his philosophy of photography. A portraitist, he now turns his lense towards the faces of nature. He looks for shadow, reflection, texture, contrast or fusion, wedding of nuances of grey and colour. Jacques engages in this strange dialogue with each subject. He brings out surprising messages, tender or dazzling depending on the mood of the spectator. And the dialogue does not end with the work; it further invites you to undertake an introspective journey.
If I had to sum up Jacques Polony I would use the words ” extreme sensitivity “. Jacques has sensors which capture the unsaid and the unseeable. As others equally receptive, he also has a system of self-protection allowing him to shelter himself and conceal his treasures if necessary. When thinking of Jacques, the words finesse, delicacy, attention to others’ needs – in short, extreme sensitivity – come to my mind. And generosity as well: through his photographs, he generously offers us a glimpse into his most inner self.
As a fine gourmet of both perceptive vision and taste buds and as a connoisseur of both the lens and the stove, he savours life like a Havana cigar. He does not hesitate to add a little haziness to his images, in the same way he might add a pinch of saffron to one of his dishes. Likewise does he exhibit his photographic works in frames carefully selected to enhance each individual work.
Jacques Polony’s photographic “cuisine” attracts our attention, whets our curiosity and exhales a sense of pure refinement.
Exhibitions
- 1985 Galerie des Remparts “Portraits”, Le Mans
- 1986 Exposition au Festival de l’Image du Mans, “Planches contact”
- 1988 Prix du Conseil Général de la Sarthe
- 1995 Exposition aux éditions Bayard Presse, “Portraits peints”, Paris
- 1996 Exposition à l’Hôtel Lutétia, “Nature mortes colorisées”, Paris
- 2002 Exposition Galerie des Remparts, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Le Mans
- 2003 Exposition au Théâtre Lucernaire, Compagnie Fortune Carrée,Les Instantanées de Jacques Polony, Paris
- 2003 Exposition Galerie Young, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Brussels
- 2004 Exposition Galerie Romanet, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Paris
- 2004 Exposition Galerie des Remparts, “Paysages”, Le Mans
- 2004 Exposition au Château du Lude, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Le Lude
- 2004 Exposition Galerie La Daurade, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Toulouse
- 2004 Exposition Galerie Le Triangle, “Fleurs de vie & mort de fleurs”, Lyon
- 2005 Salon ST’ART, Strasbourg
- 2005 Exposition Galerie des Remparts, “Instants d’émotion”, Le Mans
- 2005 Exposition Galerie Romanet, “Instants d’émotion”, Paris
- 2007 Exposition Mixte, “Fleurs de Vie”, Belgium
- 2008 Exposition Galerie Cimaise,”Transparence”, Geneva, Switzerland
- À partir du 26 juin 2008 Catherine Weyeneth, Geneva, Switzerland
- 2008 Exposition Musée de la Reine Bérengère, “L’Immense & l’Intime”, Le Mans
