Plants, flowers, trees — the subject of this series of colour photographs taken between 2002/3 and 2005/6 by Franck Christen is as essential as it is unpretentious: nature. It is the basis of our life but at the same time it is something man needs to transform, cultivate and adept to his needs. We cannot help being engineers of our natural environment, and have to be aware of its specific qualities.
There may be no other subject as precoded in the collective mind as landscape. In it, every climate zone has its own characteristic flora, every piece of land is associated with its individual imagery, conveyed by photography, film and television. A completely fresh view on nature, unspoilt by any preconception, is not possible.

Looking at the photographs of Franck Christen you wonʼ t see one of those aspects dealt with. They are neither reflexions of existing clichés nor responding to traditional pictorial compositions nor political statements. Nature is not explored or analysed systematically. The images show branches, leaves and blossoms forming an ornament against a neutral background. Mostly it is a light grey sky, not giving any hint where the photograph may have been taken. The absence of sunlight and shadows, sometimes of any surrounding and the ground takes the setting out of its specific place in time and space. Some photographs could as well be taken in a studio like those made by Karl Blossfeldt in the 1920s. But they are not.