Nicolas Wagner creates global photo art projects that represent visual, graphic and sociological maps of communities, and lifestyles. Past projects include Life Guard (2011), Sun City (2016) and Concatenation (2018).

Wagner’s travelogue of images ranges from the generic to the highly personal and goes beyond linear logic by making swift, wise pivots between fragments of lush green landscapes, cityscapes, still lives, interior spaces and the undercurrents of everyday life.

Sometimes the images are buoyed by a celebratory aura of seduction and glamour. Infused with a sly sense of humor they appear to yearn for an ideal, yet they also mirror the effect of disconnectedness from real life, ultimately expressing the tragedy inherent in the pursuit of glamour.

Wagner’s sculptural photographic compositions are ingrained by melancholy and introspection, going from the intimacy of romantic attachment to distant idolization. The sensations of memory, obsession and absence, can be read as a melancholic poem to the subject of the passage of time, art and creation, fame and immortality.

Nicolas Wagner (born 1974) lives and works in Paris. You can see his work in this previous exhibition, Concatenation