Mikael Lafontan is a French and Swedish artist born in 1968, who has been living and working in Paris for the past 20 years.
Most of his work covers and explores northern landscapes: Scandinavia, Scotland, Canada or Iceland. Raised in France by a French father and a Swedish mother, Northern countries represent for him a source of nostalgic inspiration. Distance generates hunger, desire. People of mixed origins are defined by their differences: Swedish in France, yet French in Sweden. Stuck on a never-ending quest for his lost home. And what could be better than photography to sooth this need?
As soon as it's taken, the photo belongs to the past, it represents the time lost. Here, nostalgia has a double meaning: one referring to the intrinsic specificity of photography, and one regarding the artist’s approach to his origins.
Scandinavians have a very special bond with nature. Their ecological conscience wasn’t born with climate change, but is deeply rooted in their essence. Climate and nature are rough in those countries, making survival harsh and forging, throughout history, this spirit of respect, mixed with fear and superstitions.
Mikael’s work isn’t an ideological statement, but a search for this northern spirit within the landscapes, totemic shapes and matters. Old scandinavian tales and beliefs, filled with mysterious creatures, bring life to nature itself.
