Olivier Cablat
Born in 1978
Lives and works in Arlès
Olivier Cablat grew up a few miles north of Marseille in a town that developed around a sprawling shopping area. His childhood memories are filled with visions of cheap architecture and flashy signs. As a consequence, his photographic work has focused extensively on these forms that have become such a visible part of the public space. The overexposure of messages through architecture or objects is one of his main fields of research. His personal experience becomes somewhat universal, in that the pictures he takes in the south of France could very well have been taken anywhere in the industrial world. Olivier Cablat is also interested in popular cultures: from his “Stade de la lose”, which compiles a parallel history of football, to his “scientific” inventory of various objects found in PMUs (betting cafes), his work is often tinged with humour, but respectful of the cultures that make up a world he is proud to belong to.