Michel Rouabah

Throughout photographic history, artists have used the lens to capture buildings. The oldest surviving photograph of an image formed in a camera, View from the Window at Le Gras (1827) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, depicts an angular ledge, framed by two sturdy columns. French artist Michel Rouabah’s Cosmos utilises this stylistic lineage. The shot is taken at the bottom of a swirling staircase that descends into layers of flattened decorative rails and oblique concrete steps. His minimalist and illusory approach has been recognised by 35Awards, who named him as one of the top 100 photographers working in France in 2021.

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Image: Michel Rouabah, Dark Galaxy (detail), (2021). 41.6cm x 62.4cm.