Matthieu Charneau is best known for his powerful black-and-white self-portraits, in which he experiments with different aspects of his identity. His photographs challenge us, presenting images of the body associated with ideals of beauty. His view of the human form is uninhibited and uncompromising, yet his poignant explorations of sexuality and desire project a universal humanity.

Love, Sex, Debt (LSD) is the curatorial frame for Charneau’s most recent body of work, where he continues to explore explicit homoerotic themes—subject matter almost certain to make his work a lightning rod for debate.

With intimacy as the hallmark of Charneau’s photographs, the LSD series confronts us with bold imagery. His poses are both vulnerable and confrontational — shocking to some for their content and remarkable for their technical mastery. These photographs place him at the center of ongoing debates around self-expression and censorship in the arts. The series tests the boundaries of creative freedom and holds an important place in the history of artistic struggle to depict the world with honesty and truth.

His documentation of human sexuality generates both fascination and controversy. His photography challenges the dynamics of gender, sexuality, masculinity, femininity, and beauty. The work highlights the powerful connection between art and life, as well as Charneau’s own transitory existence.

Charneau’s photography breaks with tradition in both form and content. He subverts societal expectations of gender expression and creates space for viewers to reckon with how femininity and masculinity function within social structures. His interpretation of gender is expansive and inclusive: people have the capacity to embody both femininity and masculinity — sometimes even simultaneously.

A perfect and unmistakable mirror of his own body and milieu, the images in the LSD series (over 80 black-and-white photographs) explore the unapologetic physicality of the body, mutual desire, and uninhibited pleasure. Charneau embraces male sexuality unashamed, confronting his audience. Each self-portrait casts him in a different light.

LSD was shot in a garage, where the series connects experimentation with the new realities each image creates. The artist’s frames exhibit technical precision: skilled composition, exquisite tonalities, and rich textures. In LSD Nº56, for example, Charneau gazes directly into the camera. Centered in the frame, the black background contrasts starkly with the whiteness of his skin, accentuating the angles of his exposed body. A truthful exploration of the human body, sexuality, and desire, the work references pornographic imagery—which, as Camille Paglia asserts, is inseparable from art. As Geoffrey Hartman wrote: “Great art is always flanked by both her darker sisters, blasphemy and pornography.”

The artist’s self-portraits, which explore sex and eros, place his own identity at the conceptual heart of the series. LSD Nº36 depicts the artist posing against a blank wall. In LSD Nº63, he appears nude, covered in superimposed leaves and centered in the frame, with the wall receding into the background. His expression in both pieces is more earnest than seductive — simultaneously guarded and available.

Balance and harmony are key to Charneau’s photography. He consciously composes his images to emphasize structure and geometry, as seen in LSD Nº64 and LSD Nº12. In LSD Nº25, the subject meets the camera’s gaze with calm directness. Note how tightly the artist controls what you see—the effect is that of a contained, triangulated image, which is also tinged with humor.

Consistently seeking new levels of self-expression, Charneau’s work is considered taboo by many. Yet experimentation remains essential. By juxtaposing conventional symbols of masculinity and femininity, he questions entrenched notions of male and female, exposing them as socially constructed.

Attentive to the nuanced ways identity can be captured and conveyed through the camera, the artist strategically crafts a public image for himself. He is playful, defiant, and provocative — establishing an intimate rapport with the viewer through the lens.

Matthieu Charneau has made his photographs distinctly his own. He keeps alive the tradition of masterful touch in photography while reinventing familiar subject matter through a stunning conjunction of aesthetic restraint and emotional openness. His images are created with penetrating sensitivity and psychological depth. Unflinching and at times dark, he captures himself in moments of disarmed vulnerability.

— Jimi Dams
Gallerist