Exhibition "Silence, Jazz and Light"

Born in Beirut and arrived in France at the age of 9, Christian Rahal explores the world with a sensitive gaze. It was in 2008, during an initiatory trip to India, that photography entered his life. He discovers the "sadous", spiritual and silent figures, and it is by capturing their looks that he understands the strength of the photographic medium: to reveal humanity in all its depth. This first revelation will lead to others. From the streets of Beirut to the fervour of a Palestinian camp, from the lights of Thailand to the silences of the Moroccan desert, Christian Rahal forges a visual language, made of stolen moments, faces captured in the intimate, natural lights. He develops an instinctive approach, where photography becomes a silent dialogue between the viewer and the viewer.

It is by chance, or almost, that he discovers stage photography. Invited by the Israeli trumpeter Eli Degibri to a concert, he takes his camera with him. That night, by capturing the movements, the tension, the grace of the musicians on stage, a new sensitive chord is revealed. Since then, he has been photographing the artists of the Jazz Festival in Juan every year, as close to their vibrations as possible, for 7 years now. The exhibition presented for the 2025 edition of the Festival Jazz à Juan is the fruit of this patient and passionate companionship. It reveals a series of portraits of musicians who have been on stage in recent years. Snapshots taken on the spot, imbued with a raw truth, where emotion emerges with each note. Christian Rahal does not photograph to freeze, but to resonate. His images are visual partitions: they speak to us of rhythm, silence, intensity – and always of humanity.

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