Artist Spotlight

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Benoit Courti
Courti is a French photographer who lives in Paris. He was a music composer before becoming a professional portrait photographer in 2010. The Dmax (maximum black) that Courti captures in his photographs is so rich, deep, and beautiful. I believe that is what attracted me to his art the most... how intense the blacks are in his photos.

He achieves an amazing tonal range and photographs texture so well. Whether it is the single strands of a young lady's eyebrows that stand out individually and intensely; each crease and furrow in an elderly man's face; or every defined vein and wrinkle in his model's hand - Courti captures it effortlessly. In each portrait photograph that I viewed by him, I was drawn to the gleam of light in each person's eyes... how innately beautiful it was.

The contrast in his photographs are astonishing. In one of his photographs he captures the blackest of black in the shadow detail and background; a bright tone of white in his stop action capturing of cigarette smoke with great highlights and details within it; the freckles on the model's forehead, as well as, the salt and pepper beard on his face. I imagine that Courti has spent an endless amount of time getting to know a lighting studio inside and out. It'd be amazing if I could take close up photographs of people half-way as decent as him.

He even manages to shoot a black on black photograph of a black sheep on a black background, but he metered it accurately enough for the sheep to be a deep black, but not blend with the Dmax background. His portrait photographs can be found here [x]; view them for yourself to see how breathtaking they are. More of his captivating and awe-inspiring photographs can be found here [x]. Each week when I do these artist spotlights, I think that artist for the week is my favorite; Courti trumps them all... I don't think any of the following artists that I'll be spotlighting will be as impressive as he is.

One of Courti's "Deep Black" photographs