Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
79 Rue des Archives
75003 Paris
In the collective imaginary, High Kabylia, the mountainous region of northern Algeria, is the symbol of a certain kind of resistance to imperialism, colonization, domination and terror of all ages. It’s as if the ferruginous nature of its soil had forged the steely character of its inhabitants.
Born in Geneva in 1977, Karim Kal, the grandson of Kabyle parents, is not embarking on an autobiographical or personal journey. The project he developed for the Prix HCB is rather rooted in the research he begun two decades ago in places shaped by political power – prisons, hospitals, suburbs –.
Deeply influenced by the abstract painting vocabulary of the second half of the 20th century, Kal has developed an immediately recognizable style. Mainly photographing at night, using a powerful flashlight, he reveals certain details and lets others disappear into the darkness. He sculpts reality with light.
Far from the informational overload to which we’ve become accustomed by mainstream media, he slows things down, selects what’s important, and thus proposes a critical but equally poetic form of asceticism. In so doing, he redefines the documentary contract that is inherent to photographic language.
Karim Kal is the 13th recipient of the Prix HCB, which he was given in 2023 by a jury of 6 cultural and photographic professionals.