Photography must remain a mystery, a source of timeless emotions. I founded the website patacqmaniac.com at a time when photography was endangered by its abundance; there are countless Instagram accounts by photographers, and it's easy to get lost in them. What's more, the abuse of new technologies is causing photography to lose its realism. In spirit, the discipline will always need to be seen through the lens of the photographer; anything else is mere sophistry. It must be universal, regardless of culture or era, and it must intrinsically trigger emotion at first glance, without the slightest artifice.
Here you will find my manifesto, proposed and selected for the Rencontres Photographies de Boulogne-Billancourt in 2024, which reflects the philosophy of this site.
Read the manifesto
Frédéric Patacq-Croutzet
Art is not quantitative but qualitative. The concept, certain sciences, certain philosophies, by defining a restricted universe (in the mathematical sense), tend to dismantle the artistic process and crush the originality of works. ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encompasses the entire world, stimulates progress and spurs evolution.’ Albert Einstein. The greatest critics have never been the geniuses of history, they are football commentators who never touch the ball, Maupassant's ‘bel ami’ capable of destroying you or praising you according to their own subjectivity. They reassure themselves by putting infinity into boxes, sure, anxiety disorders affect 359 million people in 2021. There is no measure of talent, just as there is no measure of the size of the soul, and even less so an explanation of the origins of life or nothingness. Art is a singularity unique to the human species; it is a quest. A complex, chaotic, temporal emotion. It is up to each of us to call on our intuition and our modesty, and then this site will have its raison d'être.
If you agree with these ideas, then patacqmaniac.com offers to create your website and host it at artistname.patacqmaniac.com free of charge and without advertising content or cookies. You can view the Terms and Conditions of Use for the site here .