NATURE GIVES US CYCLES. WE GIVE OURSELVES ATMOSPHERE.

Since the beginning of time, the sun rises, the sun sets. 

Darkness shows up, and the moon steps in wearing her soft-focus filter.

Henri Alekan once wrote a book called Des lumières et des ombres (Lights and Shadows).

Alekan asks the real question: What are lights and shadows, really?

He splits the world in two camps:



Natural light: sun, moon, stars



Artificial light: painters, filmmakers, and anyone who knows the power of a dimmer.

And he reminds us: 


shadows aren’t what hide things, they’re what give light its drama.

What we see,


more precisely what we think we see,


is governed by lights and shadows.

Sometimes born from nature,


sometimes shaped by architecture,

often crafted simply by the way life arranges itself around us.

Every sunset, darkness wins.



Every dawn, light gets its comeback.



(If the weather cooperates, of course.)

And somewhere between lights and shadows, we asked ourselves: Do they shape our interiors as much as they shape everything else?

A surgeon needs a brutal vertical beam to not miss an organ.


A photographer needs a red room, at least back in the days.

But at home:


The dinner table has a vibe.

Reading your book in that little cozy corner of the living room has a vibe.

Having a sofa-cinema moment has a vibe.

Even the small lamp you switch on at 3 a.m. to drink water has a vibe.

Some of us crave warmth and soft highlights.


Some of us love a little drama and deep shadows.

Some of us think we live in Versailles.


And some of us are perfectly happy embracing the shadows.

Either way, one truth stands:



Day comes, day goes.


Night comes, night goes.

All we know is that the morning light blasting you in the face when you pull the curtains is the only one we can’t control.

And in between, we get to choose how we light our lives.

COLLECTIONAL

THE LIGHTS AND SHADOWS

CATALOGUE SELECTION

By Oana-Maria Sofronia