Échos

Images can fan the flames. Stephen Dock’s photographs belong to the category of those that allow time for reflection.
– Joan Fontcuberta

In 2011, at just 22 years of age, the self-taught French photographer Stephen Dock set off to cover the war in Syria without a sponsor. There, he photographed resistance fighters, devastated streets, overcrowded hospitals, protest movements and the tragic daily lives of civilians. Pursuing on to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Lesbos and pushing as far as Macedonia, his journey reaches beyond the epicenter of the conflict by retracing the humanitarian and migratory crisis from which it ensued. More than a decade later, the photographer questions his archive comprising thousands of images. Taking a distance from all documentary treatment, he asserts himself in a process of reinterpretation and reappropriation of his images. By focusing on perception, he develops new forms. Replacing the world of noise with that of silence, the photographer is no longer directly turned towards the subject. He no longer obeys to the obsession of producing images but dissects them as if he were operating on organic matter. In an attempt to deconstruct photographic language, Stephen Dock puts forth generic images of modern warfare.