Awarded
Sophie Huguenot
'4 × 5', photo research
Photography
Awarded
'4 × 5', photo research
Photography
Analogue and Topical
Sophie Huguenot has won the Swiss Federal Design Award for her project '4 × 5'. The setting for her photographs is the fast-moving world of media current affairs coverage, specifically the world of television coverage. The photographer is in constant contact with the news editing team at TSR (Télévision de la Suisse Romande) and accompanies television crews as they report at local, national and international levels.
Her large-format pictures focus on 'in-between' moments and on details that lie outside of the train of events. Sophie Huguenot is interested in the moments in which, to all appearances, nothing is happening - the moments which take place away from the main event. However, these photographs are more than a peek behind the scenes - the photographer knows how to recognise and record the underlying humanity seen in small details and gestures.
The pictures depict anchorwomen in a state of extreme concentration shortly before going on air, a sound engineer waiting in a green meadow, a deserted office, reporters conducting interviews, and natural scenes which, on a second look, reveal all kinds of technical equipment. The picture captions provide indications of what is happening, but, on the whole, they leave the viewer a great deal of space for interpretation.
What all the pictures have in common is that the events shown in them carry the charge of a 'before' and an 'after'. The viewer can undertake a mental journey that brings together the enormous effort and the converging threads behind the brief broadcasts.
The large-format analogue technique forces the photographer's gaze to concentrate entirely on stationary objects. The composition of the picture focuses our attention on details and on the mood of the moment, whilst maintaining a certain distance from the events. The images appear almost iconic, so that one pictures them as exhibits in a museum.
Sophie Huguenot
Born in
1982
Education
Photographer