Khaled Youssef, French-Syrian photographer
Born in Damascus, Syria in 1975
Lives and works in Nice, France
Khaled Youssef is a surgeon by profession, and a photographer and poet by passion.
In order to express a different view of the world through photography and poetry, Khaled follows a singular adventure: bubbles, pictures and words. Traveling from continent to continent, country to country, city to city, he makes us see the world through the lens of a bubble and the prism of poetry.
In his work as a photographer and poet Khaled does not search for complexity, but rather for the intangible beauty and poetry. In his work “Poetography” ̶ which currently includes 5 series: reflet-xions, Somnan-bulle, Make bubbles not war, Globetrotting, Là où la mer se pose ̶ , Khaled combines photography with poetry in a unique way: he combines his own photographic works with his own poetry, or sometimes with the poetry of poets he admires.
There is something irresistibly magical and mysterious in soap bubbles. This fascination led him to adopt and immortalize them in his series of photographs. Out of these large soap bubbles still floating in the air, shot by Khaled from angles enhancing their myriad of colours and their transparency, a true narrative poetry comes to life, meanwhile based on a slightly different photographic approach.
Iridescent, bubbles have the power of reminiscence, as they realign us with our childhood and its memories. Crystalline, they symbolize hope and joy. While flying, they wear the seven colours of the rainbow, and burst out at a patch of blue sky to allow us to escape beyond the boundaries of our imagination. It is for all these reasons that Khaled creates them, observes them, shoots and captures them with him camera.
Poetry is often rich in metaphors while photography implies a direct visual process. Thus “Poetography” leads us to address a very different way of reading a poem and of perceiving an image. Subtly it shifts us, expels us from our routine ways of seeing, and projects us into a deeper aesthetic. The language enriched by the vivacity and wit of the authors, is dense and authentic. The image enlightened by its visual message, is true and deep.
SYRIA.ART 