Robert Charles Mann – SOLARIS

A specialist in pinhole photography, Robert Charles Mann chose to abandon traditional lenses in the 1990s in favor of handmade cameras inspired by the camera obscura.

During the winter of 2024, he installed 43 pinhole cameras across the Chambord estate—both in the park and at the highest points of the château. Each camera, pointed toward the sky, remained in place for six months, from the winter solstice (December 21, 2024) to the summer solstice (June 21, 2025).

These long exposures captured the daily trajectory of the sun, creating images where light traces its path across the sky in luminous arcs.

The resulting images, known as solargraphs, are not composites but the outcome of a single, continuous exposure over several months. After retrieving the cameras, the artist scanned and digitally refined the negatives to reveal their full richness. The final prints, produced on aluminum using archival pigments, offer a powerful visual experience—both poetic and scientific.

Balancing abstraction and observation, these works present an almost cosmic vision of Chambord, revealing the monument not as a fixed image, but as a living presence shaped by time.

SOLARIS invites visitors to experience Chambord differently: not as a single moment frozen in time, but as a space observed continuously over months. This dialogue between primitive photographic techniques and contemporary digital processes offers a fresh perspective on the château, the movement of the sun, and the passage of time.

An explanatory video documenting the installation of the cameras—taken from a film currently in production—complements the exhibition.

The exhibition is co-produced with Galerie Capazza.

Born in 1960 in the United States and now based in France, Robert Charles Mann developed an international reputation in the 1980s as a master photographic printer, collaborating with renowned photographers such as Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and Peter Lindbergh.

In contrast to the proliferation of digital images, he has chosen a slower, more deliberate approach, working primarily with pinhole cameras. This minimalist technique, combined with subtle digital enhancement, results in poetic and atmospheric images.