BLIND FAITH

18 April – 2 June 2019
Venezia, Ca’ Pesaro Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna

“This is my contribution to the world: a licence to dream.”

BLIND FAITH is an exhibition of photography by French artist and filmmaker Ann Ray.
Shot over the past fourteen years, the exhibition features numerous encounters between Ray and a wide range of art practionners, from actors, writers, choreagraphers, dancers, filmmakers, composers, such as Willem Dafoe, Alexander Mcqueen and Michail Baryshnicov amongst others.

The photographer’s brief is to pose with the eyes shut, with the intention to convey a subliminal truth, one which demands the silencing of the sight, as a form of interference. It is said that the eyes are the mirror of the soul but maybe there is another conduit to decipher the most intimate thoughts, dreams and feelings. This is Ray’s attempt to offer an insight into the abstract, the invisible and the unsaid, for a better understanding of human nature

Ann Ray

Born in Brest, France, Ray is a principally self-taught photographer and moviemaker since the age of 11. She later studied alternative photography – inspired by the pictorialism movement – at Central Saint Martins, London, in the late nineties. From 1995 to 1997 she worked in Tokyo for Cartier, Givenchy, Elle and Marie Claire. In 1997 she moved to London and started taking portraits for The Times, a collaboration which lasted over 10 years and for Vogue UK. During this time she entered into a creative collaboration with Lee Alexander McQueen, which resulted in a photographic archive of 35 000 analog photographs taken over 13 years. She has been working with the Opéra de Paris and the Metropolitan Opera in NY for more than a decade. During the entire seasons 2007 & 2009 (September to June) her works have been exhibited at the Palais Garnier: “Double Game”, a series of artists’ portraits in a very large format. She presented her project “Metamorphosis” – film & photography – in NY at the Museum at FIT in 2015. In 2018, Les Inachevés – Lee McQueen / The Unfinished was exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles and then in China as part of Jimei x Arles Photo Festival.
Her artworks have been acquired by private and public art collectors including the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Bachelot Collection, the Carmignac Foundation and the Yvon Lambert Collection. She has published 5 books since 2008: “Nicolas Le Riche”, “Mirame”, “24 hours in a man’s life”, “Love looks not with the eyes” & “Les Inachevés”.
She lives in Paris.