Mathilde Geldhof

Mathilde Geldhof was born in 1988 in Reims, she lives and works in Paris (FR).

Mathilde Geldhof uses photography to question the dialectic between reality and fiction. She uses the camera’s frame as a filter to probe the ordinary in search of its legends. Observations of daily life form the basis of her inquiries into the degree of reality in the photographic image. Rather than a serial or linear approach, she follows a compositional principle that relies on the specificity of places and those who inhabit them, on the real or imaginary connections that link spaces and characters. The fictive dimension inserts itself into her images as a response to the impossible impartiality of photography. This response unfolds through pictorial resonances or shifts of the photographic object within structures that evoke books, altarpieces, or stage sets, as ways to mix different registers. Trivial or mundane subjects encounter myth, the history of narrative, and its representations.

Mathilde Geldhof graduated from the Beaux-Arts in Paris (2014), where she studied under Patrick Tosani. Following a commission from the City of Paris, she participated in the exhibition Champ & Hors Champ – Contemporary Photographs and Videos at the Galerie des Bibliothèques (2014). After winning a prize in the “Landscape” section of the Bourse du Talent organized by Photographie.com, she took part in the winners’ exhibition, which was shown at the BNF and then at the Maison de la Photographie in Lille (2014). She then became the winner of the Yishu 8 prize and went on a residency in Beijing from January to April 2015. To conclude her time in China, she presented her first solo exhibition, Le jeu de l’Ordinaire – Photographic Tales of the City of Beijing.

Mathilde Geldhof’s work is on display during the exhibition Actuellement en résidence #3 - Crête a creux, 2016.