Discover his/her universe

The work in the dark
"He bends his head, he dodges, he is elsewhere
He escapes me, he deceives me
He escapes, he deceives himself
He is blind. Jean Janssis

Jean Janssis' photographs are surprising: brownish like old clichés, huge like posters, printed on cream paper.
posters, printed on thick, fluffy cream paper, usually reserved for drawings and prints! And, no more than the
the support, the image is not smooth either. A kind of earth or charcoal seems to coat the surface of the paper from which
from which pieces of naked bodies or faces emerge, here and there bathed in a violent light before sinking back into
before sinking back into the darkness. To the eroticism of these voluptuous bodies is added the sensuality of the material, which emanates from the velvety paper and the pigments.
velvety paper and the charcoal pigments that remain in slight relief on the print.
In the age of digital technology, of the profusion of coloured images and glossy paper, of the snapshot and the movement, "the work in black" is the only one that can be
Jean Janssis's "work in black", all silence and gravity, evokes a painting by Caravaggio, a sculpture by Michelangelo
sculpture by Michelangelo or an etching by Rembrandt. Is he a pastist?
No, of course not! Jean Janssis, of course, uses a very old technique, gum bichromate, which dates back to the origins of photography and was abandoned all
the origins of photography and immediately abandoned1. This technique alone could offer him contact with the material he was interested in.
that interested him. By dint of research, trial and error, he rediscovered all its secrets, explored and mastered all its aspects to
and mastered all aspects of it to give his images both an obvious materiality and a kind of timelessness
yet well anchored in the contemporary world, in a world, his own, both universal and singular.
Jean Janssis talks about man, he spies on him, scrutinises him, traps him, and questions himself. He admits to being passionate about physical beauty,
the prerogative of youth, that is, the only one, yet ephemeral, who believes himself to be immortal. The anguish of death is its
corollary. But the emotion is strong when, at the crossroads, a young man appears...as handsome as a god.
like a god.
And...what if it was the other way around? Didn't the Greeks already carve in eternal marble images of their gods
similar to those of man? - How could it have been otherwise? - Through the use of reason, geometry
and mathematical laws, they found an ideal beauty and a perfect harmony, which they believed to be the counterpart of that of the universe.
of the universe. It is with light, another "material" of eternity, that Jean Janssis fashions and tries to immortalise this fascinating beauty.
tries to immortalise it.
Whether it is a portrait, a character or a part of his body, the model abandons himself. The gaze turned
towards us, or elsewhere, is empty of expression. Her body gives itself up without resistance, perhaps without her knowing it, and bends

a shoulder, a foot, an arm, a sex, a hand...
But around these sublime bodies, shadows prowl, eroding the contours, rushing into the hollows and making
But around these sublime bodies, shadows lurk, eroding the contours, rushing into the hollows and making some inaccessible parts of the body disappear into a deep abyss, objects, perhaps, of an unavowable desire.
A disturbance sets in when one tries to walk in this devouring blackness that invades the space, that prevents one from seeing,
conceals and at the same time reveals the shadowy areas of the being, of the body and of the soul. Is it not a border that
between black and white, chaos and light, good and evil, life and death?
Jean Janssis knows that this absolute beauty coveted by the Greeks is only temporary, that its withering is inexorable
and that suffering can be hidden in its entrails.
Voluptuous, desirable, irresistible beauty,
Can we touch you, test you, hurt you,
Can you be deprived of your freedom to enjoy it,
Can we lock you up lest you escape?
This is the game, this risk, that Jean Janssis plays with his model. Through uncomfortable and sometimes very sophisticated poses
uncomfortable and sometimes very sophisticated poses, through a frontal and tight framing in a narrow and dead-end space, through the
the presence of rare significant or symbolic accessories, Jean Janssis elaborates a real staging of his inner
inner dialogue.
Contorted, rolled up, stretched, the body bends to all the manipulations in which the face is often eclipsed. Here,
folded in on itself, the body is gathered up "like an egg" and delicately placed on a "shell" chair, or crouched on tiptoe, with its head buried in the ground.
head buried between the spread legs, the body is rolled up into a ball. There, it is a pyramid that
Two bodies form a pyramid, upside down, with their heads lying on the ground. Overlapping each other, they cling to each other with their arms stretched out, almost
distended, towards a front they cannot see.
Jean Janssis uses the body, recomposes it, redraws it to enclose it in an almost perfect geometry that erases its imperfections and
which erases its imperfections and sublimates its beauty. And as a counterpoint, here, a leprous wall, a metaphor for the passing of time and the
metaphor for the passing of time and the inevitable destruction of things and life. There, a wooden floor whose ribs evoke the cracks
evoke the cracks that endanger the fragile edifice of beauty.
Always in search of eternity, love and beauty, Jean Janssis engages in a dramatic "exposure" in each of his works.
In each of his works, Jean Janssis makes a dramatic "exposure" and, perhaps, a "killing" of man and his body, which is none other than his own.
Anne Gersten