Photo © Yannick Cormier
Talent of the Year 2020 - NOMINEE: Yannick Cormier
Espiritus de Invierno
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The representations of the oldest masks are masks of animals, like
those found in the paintings in the Lascaux cave in France. Some
of these masks are still visible in contemporary rites around the
world.
The correlation between the masks worn during these rituals and
the anthropomorphic figurations of the Upper Paleolithic are
striking. In many parts of Europe and especially in the Iberian
Peninsula (Spain, Portugal and the Basque Country), archaic and
mysterious figures regularly haunt carnival rites since the Middle
Ages (but referring according to some specialists, like A.Darpeix,
member of the historical and archaeological society of Perigord, to
a distant shamanic and Neolithic antiquity).
They are masks adorned with skins of animals, vegetables and
straw, surrounded by bells and bones,often crowned with horns
and woods.
Thus arises the wild man within modern paganism as to symbolize
the rebirth of nature emerging from winter. The figures are
essentially ambiguous, as at the crossroads of nature and culture.
Masks always speak of the mysteries of existence: in traditional
societies, they were or still are the figure of ancestors and spirits
of the dead, that of protective or evil spirits.
About author:
Lives and works in France,
Yannick Cormier was born in France in 1975. In the 2000’s he worked at studio Astre in Paris parallel to his photographic studies in CIFAP.
He worked as an assistant for Patrick Swirc, William Klein and many others for magazines such as Vogue, Flair, Elle, Vanity Fair, etc…
Then he began a career as a documentary photographer. From 2003 to 2005 he teamed up with the agency Wostokpress and was sent
to India as a correspondent. In 2007, he founded the Trikaya Photos agency. Since 2015, He has been working on the ongoing project "Theatre Land".
His images have been published in various international magazines (OjodePez, Courrier international, Libération, The Sunday guardian,
Le Nouvel Observateur, The Hindu, CNN, Foreign Policy, etc...) and exhibited in India and abroad.
those found in the paintings in the Lascaux cave in France. Some
of these masks are still visible in contemporary rites around the
world.
The correlation between the masks worn during these rituals and
the anthropomorphic figurations of the Upper Paleolithic are
striking. In many parts of Europe and especially in the Iberian
Peninsula (Spain, Portugal and the Basque Country), archaic and
mysterious figures regularly haunt carnival rites since the Middle
Ages (but referring according to some specialists, like A.Darpeix,
member of the historical and archaeological society of Perigord, to
a distant shamanic and Neolithic antiquity).
They are masks adorned with skins of animals, vegetables and
straw, surrounded by bells and bones,often crowned with horns
and woods.
Thus arises the wild man within modern paganism as to symbolize
the rebirth of nature emerging from winter. The figures are
essentially ambiguous, as at the crossroads of nature and culture.
Masks always speak of the mysteries of existence: in traditional
societies, they were or still are the figure of ancestors and spirits
of the dead, that of protective or evil spirits.
About author:
Lives and works in France,
Yannick Cormier was born in France in 1975. In the 2000’s he worked at studio Astre in Paris parallel to his photographic studies in CIFAP.
He worked as an assistant for Patrick Swirc, William Klein and many others for magazines such as Vogue, Flair, Elle, Vanity Fair, etc…
Then he began a career as a documentary photographer. From 2003 to 2005 he teamed up with the agency Wostokpress and was sent
to India as a correspondent. In 2007, he founded the Trikaya Photos agency. Since 2015, He has been working on the ongoing project "Theatre Land".
His images have been published in various international magazines (OjodePez, Courrier international, Libération, The Sunday guardian,
Le Nouvel Observateur, The Hindu, CNN, Foreign Policy, etc...) and exhibited in India and abroad.