GARDIENS

In a simultaneous anthropological, documentary and artistic approach, Rip Hopkins produced this new photographic series dedicated to the role(s) of caretaker(s). Sometimes tinted with sarcasm, the photographs involve a taste for playing and take us on a journey through the Alpes-Maritimes region, from guard to guard. The images carry the strength of a magnified individuality. Gathered together in this body of work, they offer us an overview of the caretaker's persona, a function that is somehow unknown despite its significance in our society.

Rip Hopkins explores its multiple variations, introducing us successively to forest guards, shepherds, policemen, childcare workers, monks and receptionists. The plurality of this posture creates an effect of surprise, while the singularity of caretaking stems from it. Being a caretaker is about protecting a group of subjects, but also about defining and regulating the boundaries of this circle. Hopkins' lense highlights a paradoxical dimension. Between observation from the outside and an essential component of social mechanics, the caretaker's instinct underlies a peculiar authority - at the crossroads of benevolence, transmission and defence.