Antoine Rose
Antoine Rose, a self-taught Belgian photographer who was born with a camera in his hands at the age of eight, has established himself as a master of light and aerial composition. Trained from a very young age to sculpt light through different lenses, he developed a burning passion for photography during his travels around the world. A federal windsurfing instructor, his passion for the sea and board sports propelled him to the rank of official photographer for the Kitesurfing World Cup for more than five years, following the stages of the championship from South Africa to Istanbul, Brazil to France. Published many times and collaborating with multinational companies on global advertising campaigns, Antoine Rose has gradually shifted his approach towards radical minimalism, transforming mundane seaside scenes into true works of contemporary art.
His international fame reached its peak with his iconic series "Up in the Air," which began in 2002 during a flight over Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. A tireless perfectionist, he developed this concept over several years before presenting his spectacular prints, taken on the outskirts of the Hamptons and shot from a helicopter with all doors open, at altitudes of between 90 and 300 meters, in New York, Brussels, Hong Kong, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The exceptional reception from the American public confirmed his unique talent. Photographing in these extreme conditions, with sometimes violent breezes, and obtaining sufficient sharpness to develop panoramas over three meters wide is a technical and artistic challenge. Mounted using the patented Swiss Diasec® process, his large formats offer total immersion in compositions where the ocean and the beach become the only two visual axes, deliberately excluding the sky.
Beyond technical prowess, Antoine Rose's work is deeply rooted in artistic, anthropological, and philosophical reflection. His compositions are reminiscent of Cézanne's "Baigneurs" series while also echoing the work of Massimo Vitali, but they differ radically in their bird's-eye views taken from very low altitudes. The irregular surf of the blue-green ocean contrasts with the linearity of the beach, where umbrellas, mattresses, and towels appear as geometric elements scattered across the sparkling sand, human miniatures transformed into minimalist abstract paintings. This representation introduces a tension between the real and the virtual, the visible and the hidden, inviting the viewer to a double reading: aesthetic first, then anthropological. Seen from the sky, these "hedonistic herds" become tiny dots crushed by the immensity of the ocean, evoking an almost religious dimension where nature and humanity coexist in a mixture of harmony and tension, reminding us of our fragility in the face of infinity.
The works of Antoine Rose
