Clement Chapillon is a photographer based in the south of France. His work explores the territories, their people, and the links that unite them through a personal style borrowed from “poetic realism”. His narratives, at the border between the real and the imaginary, draw from current testimonies or old writings to document the geographical and mental space of places.
He made his first long-term documentary in Israel/Palestine entitled “Promise me a Land” to explore the various dimensions of the promised land. The series was published in an eponymous book by Kehrer Verlag and edited in many media (L’obs, Le Monde, Libération, Arte,…), won the Leica prize in Arles in 2017, and was exhibited in several institutions from Paris to Jerusalem (104, Tbilisi, MAC, Willy Brandt Center, CNAM…).
Clément Chapillon’s latest book explores notions of solitude on a remote Greek island
Clément Chapillon had been visiting the picturesque Greek island of Amorgos, the easternmost island in the Cyclades archipelago, for 20 years. Amorgos’ dramatic terrain, both arid and scenic at once, compelled him. However, the isolation engendered by the wild landscape and geographical remoteness of Amorgos ultimately intrigued the artist.
Receiving support from the artist residency Fondation des Treilles in 2019, he set out to photograph his experience of the enclave and the emotions it provoked in him. Employing a medium format analogue camera, Chapillon travelled to the island on five separate occasions over two years, immersing himself in the solitude of his surroundings.
The American novelist Henry Miller reflected that “spiritual apparitions” punctuated his journey to Greece – a sentiment that resonated with Chapillon. His quiet images, drenched in the golden Greek sun, confer a sense of otherworldliness. However, an eerie silence and lethargy also pervade them.
Collectively, the images question the idea and experience of “islandness”, as the photographer describes it, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in Amorgos’ atmosphere as Chapillon found it.
