ROMAIN BERGER is a photographer on the French scene, born in Normandy in the late 80s.
With a background in film and theater, he has long been fascinated by images, popular culture, stereotypes and gender issues.
His artistic work is offbeat, cinematic, colorful and gently provocative. He unabashedly claims to be a camp artist, a concept which, among other things, refers to a form of self-mockery that enables gay men to laugh at the difficulties of their condition in a homophobic society, all with artifice and exaggeration.
That's why he deliberately takes the clichés of gay culture and turns them on their head, highlighting the best and worst of our world (loneliness, superficiality, overconsumption, violence, addiction, sex, politics, etc.).
We all have a hidden side, and what interests her is not the public image, but our secrets and what goes on in private and intimacy. A way of criticizing the hypocrisy of the human race and the political correctness imposed by a patriarchal society. Life has no rules, we are the only masters of our game.
Influenced by the photography of David Lachapelle and the color aesthetics of director Gregg Araki, his work is an ode to life, love and freedom of expression.
A subculture artist, he is the photographic equivalent of so-called independent cinema. He doesn't follow current trends, and mixes cinema and queer worlds to the extreme, far removed from current photographic fashion, which strives for maximum naturalness. Little appreciated in his own country, he finds recognition abroad, where he is often celebrated in magazines and exhibitions.
Building on this international recognition, in September 2022 the English publisher Men on paper art published LIFE'S A CABARET, a book about his work, featuring all his photographs since 2018. Following on from this, Germany has published SEX UTOPIA, a 400-page book featuring 70 artists from around the world, including Pierre et Gilles.