SOPHIE MAZINGARBE Artist - Photographer All content © copyright Sophie Mazingarbe Keen insights about the values of our society catch us by the throat as our brain is rebuilding the reality around the picture. Colours and nuances proceed out of an inclination towards relevance and abstraction. Portraits are worth nothing unless they disclose the hidden rapports between the subject and their world. Like Martin Parr before her, Sophie Mazingarbe tends towards the de-realisation of the banal to create a boomerang effect. The choice of colours is reminiscent of Nick Knight, with its assumed brightness and occasional vividness. She does not hesitate to tread on pathways once opened by Man Ray. Experimentations with chemicals allowed her to obtain stunning nuances in beautiful architectural shots. Sophie Mazingarbe comes from a mid-sized industrial town in Northern France, near to Lille. The eldest daughter of a hardworking middle-class entrepreneur and a nurse, her first experience with a camera took place the day she turned six. Aged 19, she enrolled in the EFET University in the 12th Arrondissement of Paris, a university of photography of worldwide fame where she met Marc Bruhat, an old collaborator of the late universally acclaimed Henri Cartier-Bresson. She worked for France-Soir, the famous French national newspaper. She graduated in June 2005 and now lives in the North-West of England, where she makes a living off her trade. ophie Mazingarbe is a young international photographer. In 2005, she exhibited her work at the Conservatoire National de Paris where she was praised for her unique style and approach. Her work was again acclaimed when she presented it in the North-West of England in 2006. She has mainly worked with musicians since and designed Thea Gilmore’s hit album Liejacker’s artwork in 2008. She has met with such artists as Towers of London and Badly Drawn Boy. She is currently working on a batch of new and exciting projects. Sophie Mazingarbe has a unique way of questioning reality. She will focus people’s attention on the minute details that make the simple object a complex one. Fragmentation often takes centre stage. The heavy use of close-ups allows her to uncover secret forces at work, identity and History. In a stunning process of deconstruction, pieces will expose the subject as a whole and in all its complexity.