Alhazen presents a group of twelve works by Thomas Paquet created specifically for this exhibition at Villa Atrata. Drawn from two photographic series made on glass, they are inspired by Alhazen’s research on light and the Moon.

Alhazen (965–1040) was a mathematician, philosopher, and physicist of the Islamic Golden Age (8th – 13th centuries). Through his pioneering studies of optics involving mirrors and the camera obscura*, he helped overturn the ancient belief that vision results from rays emitted by the eye. Instead, he confirmed the opposing theory that sight occurs when light enters the eye. He also demonstrated that the Moon does not reflect sunlight like a mirror; rather, its brightness varies according to the portion of its surface illuminated by the Sun and visible from Earth.

The recording of light as a means of revealing the world lies at the heart of photography. In this exhibition, Thomas Paquet engages with this principle by seeking to make the very experience of light perceptible.

To allow light to leave a trace on a photosensitive surface, the artist employs a documentary approach based on the direct recording of reality. Using long exposures lasting several hours, the photographic emulsion records the movement of the Sun and Moon across the sky. These exposures produce lines and spots corresponding to the apparent trajectories of celestial bodies, transforming seemingly abstract images into archives of time. 

Illusion and imagination also play a central role in Thomas Paquet’s practice, particularly through the recurring circular form that evokes planets, stars, and the cosmos. For the artist, photography is a construction of appearances, perceptions, and visual illusions. The use of mirrors further challenges our perception, prompting us to reflect on the encounter between the visible and the invisible.

By unveiling the materiality of photography, the exhibition invites us to slow down. Light, space, and time become phenomena to be both experienced and interpreted. Through this attention to the very conditions that make an image possible, Thomas Paquet reminds us that photography is, above all, born from light.

*Camera obscura: an optical device that projects the image of an illuminated scene onto a flat surface. Used by painters from the Renaissance onward to reproduce perspective with accuracy, it provided the optical principle that later gave rise to photography.

Thomas Paquet (born in 1979, lives and works between Paris and Angles-sur-l’Anglin) explores the nature of time, the structure of its continuous flow, and the dynamics of its movement. His work engages with the fundamental elements of photography, light, space and time, to offer a sensitive experience of the world.

His approach is direct and experimental. Each project is based on a specific procedure, whether optical, physical or chemical. While silver gelatin film often lies at the heart of his process, he also works with historical techniques such as wet collodion, cyanotype, instant film and other nineteenth century processes.

His works, grounded in a resolutely contemporary dimension, examine the possibilities and limits of photographic documentation from within. They blur the boundaries between science and poetry, materiality and abstraction, objectivity and subjectivity, inviting viewers to reconsider their perception of reality.

His work has been presented in several institutions, including : PM23 – Fondazione Valentino Garavani e  Giancarlo Giammetti, Rome, Italy ; Bonisson Art Center, Rognes, France ; Centre d’Art Le Point du Jour, Cherbourg, France ; Le Lieu, Ploemeur, France ; le Musée Albert Kahn, Boulogne-Billancourt, France ;  la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.

Collections : Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti ; Musée français de la photographie ; Collection Galiana-Wiart ; Bibliothèque nationale de France.