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From 15 May to 30 June 2025, Domaine de Rocheville will be exhibiting urban photography and natural landscapes by French photographer and poet David Barthélémy. The photo exhibition ‘Etre dehors (estar fuera)’ is an invitation to contemplate the world through contemporary photography that unites the city and nature.
City and nature through the lens of David Barthélémy
David Barthélémy’s talent lies in the perfect balance between two worlds.
On the one hand, urban compositions with geometric, straight, structured, almost mathematical lines, captured in large cities in France and Spain.
On the other, green escapes where nature reclaims its rights, untamed and mysterious, from the Ariège to the Loire Valley.
The exhibition ‘Être dehors (estar fuera)’ at Domaine de Rocheville explores the duality between city and nature. The viewer is invited to observe these two worlds, which at first glance seem to have nothing in common other than the photographer’s own eye.
Yet this apparent dichotomy conceals a profound coherence. ‘My gaze wanders from the large estates to the great outdoors’, confides the artist from the Ariège. ‘Here I am, isolated in the depths of a wood, invisible when I photograph my fellow human beings in the city. One and the same look.’
Contemporary photography : balance according to David Barthélémy
If you were to remember just one thing about David Barthélémy’s photographs, it would undoubtedly be his quest for balance. Each shot reveals a keen sense of composition, an almost architectural rigor, which sometimes flirts with abstraction.
Balance results from the intersection of lines but also from the opposition of shadow and light, color and black and white, as seen in the photo “Les Fausses Jumelles” (Spain, 2025), which contrasts two parts of the same wall, each adorned with a window seemingly identical to its neighbor.
“David Barthélémy places some of his photographs in frames; he frames all his photographs,” writes Caroline Gallien about him. “The geometric shapes stand before us, worthy of being observed […] everything indicates that one should not take a step further but rather adhere to this intuition of the frame captured at that precise moment.”
An anecdote perfectly illustrates this instinctive search for compositional perfection: after taking a first photo handheld, dissatisfied with a setting, he reframes and shoots again. The result? Two images rigorously identical in their composition. “This is in no way the result of chance,” he emphasizes, “and it says a lot about my search for balance.”
An intuitive and silent process
Contrary to what this almost obsessive precision might suggest, there is nothing calculated about David Barthélémy’s approach. ‘Images come to me intuitively,’ explains the man who started photography at the age of 12, when his father gave him his first reflex camera.
‘The places to be photographed, whether in an urban setting or in nature, come to me by themselves, sometimes forcefully,’ he continues. ‘I let it all come to me, and it also happens that nothing appears, in which case there is no image.
This contemplative approach translates into an economy of means – one or even two shots of the same scene, rarely more. And sometimes, the most courageous act is to give up. ‘I deploy my equipment and once I’m behind the viewfinder, it doesn’t work as I’d hoped. No matter how much I move around, nothing works. So I fold everything up. And that takes a certain amount of energy, it’s a very special feeling.
This philosophy gives an impression of silence and contemplation when you look at David Barthélémy’s photos, even when they are urban shots taken in the middle of Paris.
Urban photography: the choreography of bodies and neighbourhoods
In his urban wanderings through Paris, Nantes and Madrid, David Barthélémy captures much more than architecture. He captures the subtle interactions between individuals and their environment, revealing the invisible but powerful link between the intimate and the collective.
‘I often observe inhabited squares for a long time,’ he says. ‘The neighbourhoods these anonymous people pass through, the streets they inhabit, have an impact on the very way they inhabit their bodies, on the way they move.’
This sociological observation is reflected in photographic works such as ‘Kimia’, ‘Champs Elysées’ and ‘Madame Belleville’ (Paris, 2019).
These show three women walking in three very different areas of Paris: Château Rouge, Belleville and the Champs Elysées.
Despite the similarity of the situation and the shot (all three walk in profile past a door), everything separates them: their posture, their clothes, their culture, the architectural environment in the background, all reveal very different lives.
Natural landscapes: in David Barthélémy’s ‘great outdoors’.
Dans la nature sauvage, David Barthélémy déploie une autre facette de son talent. Loin des constructions humaines, il arpente chemins oubliés et sentiers boueux, trépied en bandoulière, attentif aux moindres frémissements du vivant.
“Then there’s the great outdoors and the chance of forgotten paths. Crossing trees, mud, breath and clutching hands. By chance walls and moss, puddles and springs.’
This ‘great outdoors’ is evident in works such as ‘Mangrove d’ici’ (Saint-Martin-de-la-Place, 2023), ‘Vivant vallon’ and ‘Aux brumes citoyens’ (Ariège Couserans, 2021), where nature seems both welcoming and mysterious, familiar and impenetrable.
A tireless walker, David Barthélémy has travelled the Camino de Compostela on several occasions, calling it ‘The Way’.
Indeed, the very title of the exhibition, ‘Estar fuera’ (‘To be outside’ in Spanish), is ‘like a cry, which could mean, I’m setting sail, I’m leaving’, he explains, revealing the thirst for space and freedom that drives all his work.
Urban photography and nature : an aesthetic of waiting
For David Barthélémy, it’s never a question of ‘taking a photo’, but rather of waiting for it to come to him. Armed with a tripod, he wanders slowly through streets, parks and forests, rarely, if ever, triggering the shutter. This relationship with time nurtures a photography of the right moment, the exact light, the unpremeditated emergence.
Using a tripod slows the process down even further, amplifying the meditative quality that characterises his approach.
Between visual poetry and poetry of words
One of the most touching aspects of David Barthélémy’s work is undoubtedly the tenuous but essential link between contemporary photography and literature. The artist is also a poet, and he admits that writing and photography bring him great joy.
His two practices are mutually nourishing, even if they seem to temporarily exclude each other: ‘When I write, I make few images; when I photograph, I write little.
This poetic dimension particularly permeates his nature shots, as evidenced by the ‘Poésie ligérienne’ series (Bords de Loire, 2024), in which the reflections of the water and the changing light compose a veritable visual poem.
The exhibition ‘Etre dehors (Estar Fuera)’ (Being outside (Estar Fuera)) allows visitors to discover some of his poetry alongside his photographs.
Originally from the Ariège region of France, David Barthélémy has led a nomadic existence between the Loire Valley and Paris, carrying with him the contrasting landscapes and multiple geographies that nourish his work. Generated by two worlds, his poetry, whether literary or photographic, oscillates between contemplation and questioning, between calm and a critical eye.
Other projects by photographer David Barthélémy
Technically, David Barthélémy favours fine art prints glued to dibond, guaranteeing optimum quality and longevity for his works. The exhibition features a range of formats, from the most intimate (20×30 cm) to the most imposing (90×135 cm), allowing different levels of reading and emotional impact.
Urban photography and natural landscapes: between escape and contemplation
Alongside his photographic work, the artist is also developing a lighting design business, which can be seen on his recently opened Instagram account (@daba.lum). A logical extension of his work on light, the fundamental element of all photography.
Ultimately, what strikes you about David Barthélémy’s work is this constant invitation to see the world differently, to stop for a moment in our frantic rush to contemplate what surrounds us – whether it’s a tangle of urban lines or a misty valley.
‘I see the outside as the space of freedom. Walking is never in vain’, he asserts, reminding us that the very act of looking can be an act of resistance in our over-connected lives.
At a time when our lives are increasingly lived in confined, virtual spaces, ‘Être dehors’ resonates as a salutary invitation to rediscover the real world – with its astonishing geometries and unfathomable mysteries.
Contemporary photography exhibition at Domaine de Rocheville
The photographic exhibition ‘Etre dehors (estar fuera)’ is part of the cultural programme at Domaine de Rocheville, located near Saumur in the village of Parnay (Maine et Loire).
A producer of certified organic Saumur wines, the winery has also been committed to contemporary art since 2014. It lends its walls 5 times a year to artists (photographers, abstract painters, figurative painters, cartoonists, etc.) for a variety of exhibitions, combining art and wine in a unique setting.
Since 2004, Domaine de Rocheville has been passionately cultivating and vinifying the Chenin and Cabernet Franc grape varieties used to produce its elegant AOP Saumur Blanc, Saumur Champigny, Crémant de Loire and Saumur Rosé wines.
The exhibition space, integrated into the glassed-in tasting room, overlooks the Parnay valley and offers a luminous, uncluttered setting that perfectly showcases the works of art.
Over the years, Domaine de Rocheville has welcomed such talented photographers as Odette Bocher, Michèle Lepeintre, Philippe Siriot, Alain Campo Paysaa, Pierre Fuentès, Npier, Elisabeth Laplante and Luc Lortie. The varied themes explored by these artists range from still life and urbex scenes to biodiversity, Loire landscapes and old walls, with approaches that are at times highly realistic and at others verging on the abstract.
During our openings and wine tourism events, visitors are invited to enjoy a complete sensory experience, combining wine tastings, artistic discoveries and guide tours of the estate. It’s a great opportunity to feel the soul of the place, a blend of culture, heritage, terroir and nature.
Do not miss
The ‘Être dehors (estar fuera)’ exhibition features some forty works, offering a comprehensive overview of David Barthélémy’s work. Among the masterpieces, don’t miss:
‘Pluie et parapluie’ (Paris, 2020) and “Rouge²” (Nantes, 2021), two impressive large-format urban compositions (90×135 cm).
The ‘Poésie ligérienne’ series, four dreamlike visions of the banks of the Loire captured in 2024
More intimate works such as ‘Kimia’ and ‘All we need’ (Paris, 2019)
The artist’s latest creations, produced in Spain in 2025
All the works are available for sale, with prices ranging from €80 for small formats to €800 for the largest prints.
Exhibition and sale by David Barthélémy: practical information
Être dehors (estar fuera)’ exhibition by David Barthélémy
From 15 May to 30 June 2025
Domaine de Rocheville, 49730 Parnay
Opening on 15 May from 6pm in the presence of the artist
Free admission
Come and discover these visual and literary stories, accompanied by our famous fine bubbles!