EVERYTHING INTRIGUED HIM — trees, movies, people, the night. He would often repeat ‘That’s beautiful’ while swiping through images on his camera after a shoot. Not proud of his own work, but astonished by the magic of the medium of photography. He was perpetually stunned at the idea of capturing, printing, and transmitting the beauty of the world. I worked with Olivier Metzger on a report for French magazine Télérama, then again at Château Palmer to portray the spirit of the grape harvests. He photographed the deft, dancing movements of the workers’ hands, the sunlight glinting off the soft, downy leaves. I loved seeing him stand out against the vines, his biker style and delicate soul – the soul of an artist at work, worried about “making” a photograph that met his own high standards.
WHEN NIGHT FELL, instead of putting away his camera, he continued searching for images as if battling the darkness, transforming the final glimmers of daylight into cinematic landscapes whose magnetism and peculiarity he savoured. In spring 2022, I accompanied him on a residency in Hossegor while he created his Sodium exhibition, photographing the final orange flashes of light of the Landes night. He developed this practice just outside Nantes and Bordeaux as part of a major photographic commission for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Olivier wanted to capture the essence of the night, conquer the dusk, work with the blackness, and measure his vision against the invisible.
On November 2, 2022, he died tragically in a car accident at the age of 49 near his home in Arles. His death left the photography world in complete shock, struck by a feeling of immense sorrow. Meanwhile, Olivier’s images continue to walk their precious, light-filled path.
BORN IN ALSACE IN 1973, Olivier Metzger spent several years working as a nurse before graduating from the École Nationale de la Photographie in Arles in 2004. His work has been exhibited across the world, from the FIAC in Paris and the Hermès Foundation in Berne to the Moscow House of Photography and the Institut Français in Prague. As a major figure of the Modds photo agency, he has contributed to countless French and international press publications, including Le Monde, Télérama, Libération, and The New York Times. Just before he passed away, he was working on a project focused on the theme of “the night” for a major photography commission with the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Everything intrigued him – trees, movies, people, the night. He would often repeat “That’s beautiful”.
Erwan Desplanques — Journalist
