Jean-Luc Mylayne

For more than thirty years, French artist Jean Luc Mylayne has explored the intimate bond between subject and photographer through a non-traditional approach that combines exacting conception, visionary inventiveness, and infinite patience. Mylayne’s photographic subjects, commonplace birds such as sparrows, starlings, and bluebirds, belie the wholly unique experience that Mylayne captures in his photography.

Mylayne’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in a highly personal, almost metaphysical approach to image-making, and his approach to his subject is aligned with an existential exploration of nature, time, and humanity’s impact on the environment. Eschewing telephoto lenses, he spends days and even weeks in the field with the birds, allowing them to become acclimated to his presence and thereby achieving a proximity and intimacy with his subjects that is unprecedented in traditional wild-life photography. Indeed Mylayne’s art goes far beyond the simple documentation of various species and habitats. Rather, his work embodies exploration and a philosophical meditation on the nature of being in the world. This nationally-traveling exhibition brings together 23 large-scale, unique, color photographs in the artist’s first solo exhibition in an American museum.

Jean Luc Mylayne was organized for Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, by Terrie Sultan, Director, the Parrish Art Museum (former Director of Blaffer Gallery). The exhibition and publication are made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Lannan Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation, the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts and its presenting partner, the Levant Foundation, and the French Cultural Services.

Jean-Luc Mylayne