Drama queen: Rancinan shot this photo of actress Gong Li for a magazine. Gerard Rancinan

French photographer Gerard Rancinan in his studio. Provided to China Daily

Gerard Rancinan combines photography and pop culture to draw attention to social issues, Rebecca Lo reports.

During a lightning tour of the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Pompidou Centre last year, I made sure I hit all the art history 101 favorites. Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa was high on the list, and finally seeing it was worth traipsing up and down the Louvre in search of it.

At the opening of French photographer Gerard Rancinan's Hong Kong debut exhibition, I experienced deja vu. Metamorphosis I The Raft of Illusions (2008) took the basic concept, composition and colors of Gericault's 1819 masterpiece and stylized it with contemporary characters.

Refugees with sculpted, tattooed bodies languish on a makeshift raft, sailing toward the promise of the West, struggling to reach the Hollywood signboard and Eiffel Tower in the waves beyond.

The concept behind Raft of Illusions stemmed from the issue of refugees seeking asylum in France and other Western European countries.

"I tried to revisit the old masters," Rancinan says. "Raft of the Medusa was about slaves risking their lives. And immigration is still a big question today. Raft became the first photo in the series.."

The Bordeaux region-born Rancinan has always tried to tell how he sees historical events unfolding around him. He straddles the line between art and photojournalism, and his images have earned him an enviable reputation, as well as four World Press Awards.

"I don't care about taking nice pictures," says the member of France's Order of the Arts and Letters, a national recognition of significant contribution to the arts and literature. "I want to be a witness. Being a photographer is a big responsibility. Stopping time is like being God."

Metamorphoses, first exhibited in 2009 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, is part of his Trilogy of the Moderns, which also includes Hypotheses and Wonderful World.

Thirty photographs from the trilogy are on display at Hong Kong's Opera Gallery, along with portraits of celebrities, like Stanley Ho, Gong Li and Paul McCartney. The exhibition continues in Singapore and Seoul; afterwards, the trilogy will be showcased for the first time at the Triennale di Milano in May 2012.

The trilogy apparently took three months to develop, from the photos' conceptualization to designing their backdrop, while the shoot took two days inside Rancinan's studio.

The Frenchman says some of the models were professionals, while others were people he just found on the streets and in the metro.

His photo of Stanley Ho, standing on the helicopter pad of Shun Tak Center, was taken for London's Sunday Times just before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong.

"Every portrait that I take is a collaboration," Rancinan says. "We took this as he was getting off his helicopter and it was shot very quickly."

The photo of Gong Li, meanwhile, was shot for a magazine. The actress specifically asked for Rancinan as the pair had previously collaborated in Venice.

"We chose a black dress together," he says. "She's a simple, clever woman - the feeling was good between us."

Rancinan says he finds inspiration in a variety of things. While waiting at Chicago's O'Hare international airport, for example, he saw what he calls "a perfect example of American culture" in a family who were all sporting the same sweatshirt while gorging on junk food.

"Everyone wants to be American," he says. "But are we more clever because of it? To be different is fantastic."

You can contact the writer at sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 11/20/2011 page15)