AMSTERDAM.- As part of the Foam_3h exhibition series, Foam presents Obviously, an exhibition by the French photographer Audrey Corregan (b. 1982). Last April, Corregan won the prestigious photography prize at the Hyères Festival de International de Mode & Photographie with this series of photos. The exhibition features seven portraits of stuffed birds shown from behind, transforming them into sculptural objects of shape and colour.

This series clearly shows Corregan’s fascination with the medium of photography - in particular the fact that she can bend the truth to her own ends, playing with reality through the medium’s apparent objectivity. These birds are actually stuffed, but portrayed from behind we are left in some doubt as to whether or not they are living. Corregan uses this ambiguity, characteristic to photography, to emphasise that the viewer is constantly being manipulated.

The series removes the bird, symbol of flight and freedom, from its natural environment. Time and life seem frozen, allowing the viewer to concentrate upon the creatures’ forms, textures and magnificent colours. Looking in the same direction as the viewer, and reinforced by their central positioning, the subjects look more like characters than birds. Extra images have been added to the series for this exhibition at Foam. Audrey Corregan studied photography at Gobelins, École de L’Image in Paris and later at École de Vevey in Switzerland. From 2005 to 2007 she also studied at Amsterdam’s Rietveld Academy. Corregan has appeared in various group exhibitions including at De Chiellerie, University Gallery Boston (2006) and Quay 1, Vevey in Switzerland (2004). Corregan currently lives and works in New York.