Historical Geography

About the Photographer

Deschamps, Francios A.

American, b. 1946

In the 1990s photographer and book artist François Deschamps created mixed-media assemblages that integrate photographs and various timeworn objects in box-like frames made of weathered wood. Deschamps describes these works as little museums, each of which "holds momento mori for civilization—a reminder of the fragility and the beauty of time's passage." While exploring themes of history and geography, these constructions also play with the photograph's dual existence as both a flat image and a tangible object.

Deschamps' piece Historical Geography (1992) incorporates three different representations of islands: a black and white photograph of a rock surrounded by water, an old printed illustration of a ship navigating an atoll, and a scrap of rusty metal with the outline of an island drawn on it. Arranged spatially as if they were separate islands themselves, these fragments similarly have a timeworn look, expressing a sense of history. Meanwhile, Deschamps calls attention to the physical qualities of the assemblage, prompting us to look at it as more than just a framed picture. The composition has an unconventional, not-quite-rectangular shape, and its various elements appear to merge with the distressed wooden boards that function as both the background and the physical support for the piece. Deschamps embraces a degree of illusionism to make it look like the photograph has fused with the wooden background: superimposed with the imagery of the rock is actually a second photographic image, which depicts the chipped wood that is hidden beneath the actual print itself.

Deschamps studied at the Sorbonne, Paris (1964-65) and the University of Illinois, Champaign, where he received BS, MS, and ABD degrees (1965-1970). He went on to receive an MS in Photography from the Institute of Design, at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1972). Deschamps taught at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois from 1972 to 1980, at which point he joined the faculty of the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, where he still teaches today. Deschamps lives and works in New Paltz and Vinalhaven, Maine.