Bored Panda reached out to Chris.
“When visiting the temples of Angkor, I was fascinated by the way nature had reclaimed the site. At the time of their splendor, the temples of Angkor were probably as imposing as are today’s gigantic buildings, modern man’s super-structures, our skyscrapers; the headquarters of our multinationals, where man affirms his domination over nature, reflecting his need to repel and control the natural environment, imposing an ultra-coded, highly controlled mineral world, designed and urbanized, often beautiful and quite pretentious.
At a time when we have become aware of the fragility of nature and are increasingly concerned about ecology, global warming, and the future of the planet, I wondered, conscious of the transitory and perishable nature of all that is human, how all these man-made super-structures would evolve in time."
"Angkor is sublimely poetic, overgrown by the forces of nature and evoking a long-lost human civilization… why not Dubai, Shanghai, New York, Paris next?… What will become of these urban landscapes, these megacities, this civilization of ours, now possibly at the height of its strength, but one day vowed to disappear, as did the Mayans or the Khmers?
My vision is the complete opposite of an apocalyptic world. I see it full of life, a kind of rediscovered Garden of Eden, overflowing with shapes and colors.
I imagine the architectural logic of right angles and wide-open spaces replaced by lush nature, growing in the most unexpected ways. A history of the town revisited, now lush and greened, ecological and Angkor-like.
Each of my images presents an iconic building, ancient or modern, in towns that I have photographed. I then rework the image like I would a painting, digitally, I play with color, shadows, textures, focus, perspectives, I add trees, animals, plants, industrial wrecks… I add all kinds of elements photographed during previous travels, that come to feed the universe I explore.”
