Benoît Santiard
"Agathe Rosa’s photographic practice forms part of a broader artistic practice.
A visual artist represented by the Italian gallery Société Interludio, she has for several years been developing a body of work comprising installations, drawings, objects and ceramics, in which the relationships between light, space and perception are constantly re-examined. Her drawings, often criss-crossed with lines and structures, can be read as open plans, and certain installations extend these lines into space and matter. Recently, one of her works was acquired by the museums of Marseille. She also holds the title of Senior Lecturer and taught for ten years at the Marseille School of Architecture.
Architectural photography stems from this focus on built forms and their ability to evoke sensory experiences. Trained as an architect (HMONP) and having worked in architectural practices, Agathe Rosa possesses an immediate understanding of projects: their spatial logic, their constraints, their intentions. She has notably collaborated with award-winning architectural practices, including Ivry Serres and Laurent Beaudouin (Équerre d’Argent 2022) on the Grasse Media Library. But for her, this technical knowledge is merely a starting point. Her interest lies elsewhere: in the way a building breathes, captures light, interacts with its surroundings, and welcomes people and their gaze.
Her photographic practice thus occupies an intermediate space, between precision and intuition. She observes volumes, materials, reflections, transitions of light, and the sometimes almost imperceptible situations that give a place its atmosphere. The image then becomes less a description than a way of revealing what is at play in the experience of the building. Several projects she has photographed have won or been shortlisted for major architecture awards.
The name Hîgo came to her as a matter of course, appearing one day in a dream before she discovered its origin. Hîgo is the name of an ancient province in Japan. For her, the word evokes a set of values: meticulousness, attention to the site, respect for materials, and a subtle relationship between architecture and landscape. More than just a name, Hîgo has become a way of thinking about perception — an attentive, almost silent practice that seeks to reveal the unique qualities of a place.
Every project begins with a conversation. Rather than a mere technical exchange, Agathe Rosa engages in a dialogue with the architects: she asks them what images come to mind, what references—artistic, literary or cinematic—have inspired their project. This exploration allows her to enter their world, to understand the imagination that runs through the building.
From there, a photographic approach begins to take shape: the choice of framing, lighting, timing, and sometimes even the format of the images. Photography becomes a shared interpretation. When she arrives at a location, she first takes the time to look. To observe, to walk, to wait. She senses the atmospheres, the variations in light, the rhythms of the place. This phase of immersion allows her to step away from the purely technical aspects of taking the photograph and build a more sensitive relationship with the architecture.
The images then come together like fragments of a narrative. Not an exhaustive documentation of the building, but a series of situations that reveal its tensions, balances and atmospheres. In this work, Agathe Rosa seeks less to showcase a project than to convey the experience of it. Through the gentle precision of her gaze, photography becomes a space for dialogue: between the architect and the site, between the building and those who view it.
And sometimes, too, between images and words. For accompanying his photographs with writing is an integral part of his approach: texts that recount the experience of the place and lend coherence to the project, from the photographic reportage to its dissemination. A way of extending the gaze through language."
Benoît Santiard
-
Published by Building Books
→ Original version