Experimental 2nd place winner

Technical mediums are most of the time transparent, revealing their true nature only through malfunctions or when disturbances occur : for instance, while listening to music, the medium becomes noticeable only when you hear radio interference, dust on a vinyl record, or scratches on a CD... Building on this principle, this series aims to highlight the intrinsic materiality of digital photography.
To this end, damages were deliberately inflicted to the sensors of digital cameras through direct physical actions (scratching, drilling, etc.) onto the photosensitive electronic surface. As the sensor records the traces of its progressive destruction, the photographs produced by the camera become self-referential, capturing only the process of their own creation. The digital photosensitive surface, usually a simple receptacle for images, thus becomes a full-fledged photographic material whose alterations reveal its substance.

Born in 1984, Tommy Goguely lives and works in Bordeaux. A graduate in fundamental physics and holder of a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, he started photography as a self-taught amateur. After a three-year course at the Bordeaux Fine Arts School, he redirected his practice towards works with more conceptual influences. Fuelled by image theories, his experimentation now mostly revolves around questioning the photographic medium through the lens of contemporary digital society.

In 2019, he initiated a large body of works titled "Palimpsests". This term refers to a parchment where the original writing has been erased to make way for a new text on the same support. It accurately reflects the intent behind this project. Indeed these photographs take the form of contemporary rewritings of iconic works from the history of photography, translated into the new context of digital society. Initiating a dialogue with techniques and theories of the past, they offer a reflection about the concept of post-photography and question the evolution of the medium in the era of its alleged disappearance.