Capturing Beauty’s “As Is”

There is an interesting paradox at play in the photographs of Peggy Faye. On the one hand, we find in her work a sense of quotidian simplicity and everyday beauty that can only really exist in the field of photography. Yet on the other, we see in her colour compositions elements of such careful balance – and planes of such vibrant lustre – that they seem born of a painter’s palette.

Flowing from her last show, Photographes, presented earlier this year, her latest exhibition at Mezz’art, Face aux murs, is every bit as raw and subtle as the first, though with an added sense of cohesion.

Seeing Faye’s work is a comforting delight that feels almost like returning to visit an old friend. Like that wise old soul who comes to calm and ground you, she’s there just to remind you of the things you always knew. “Stop straining your eyes to fill the frame with such lofty imaginings,” the friend might say, “just open them, and look: everything you could ever want to see is already there.”

Distilled to an essence, Faye’s magic is in her eye for seeing beauty precisely where it is, free of the need to mold or manipulate it to the artist’s passions. It’s in the richness of the copper tones of a worn out rusted grate, as its crooked mesh shadow is cast against the concrete wall behind it; in the luminous teal mosaic made from mere peeling paint, as it tears gently away from the whitewashed surface beneath. It is there – if only you’ll remember not to forget – in the earth’s own works of art.

In addition to the simple subjects of her photos, the potency of Faye’s images rests in the honesty of her appeal, and her approach. Walls, windows and doors often fill the frame and are always captured head on, without angling or obstructions. They are examined from so close up as to emphasize but the fundamental geometry of the image – the planes, the lines, the colours, the forms – and to erase all sense of setting in the process. That too, though, is precisely the point. The lack of any discernible cultural or geographic context in her work is, ultimately, the context she seeks. Simply put, the fact that we can’t tell the difference between the photos taken in Tokyo and those of a Plateau alleyway speaks to the very heart of Faye’s vision, namely the universality of the human experience.

At the end of one of her exhibitions, you can’t help but come away with a wistful wave of admiration, if not outright envy. To see the world through Faye’s eyes, after all, is to spend every waking moment enamoured by the common canvases found around every corner, lusting for the sights that surround us every day, and at home in every corner of the world.

Peggy Faye’s Face aux murs is on exhibition at Galérie Mezz’art until April 17, 2011.