An Introduction to the DSM.LAB Photography Practice Space by Aurélien Desmettres
奥雷利安·德斯梅特雷斯的DSM.LAB 摄影实践空间介绍
The DSM.LAB is my photographic space—a personal body of work where analog and digital coexist, not as opposing forces, but as complementary tools in a continuous process of exploration.Far from the idea of a technical lab, DSM.LAB functions more like a visual notebook, a portfolio in constant evolution. It’s shaped by my ongoing photographic research—where each project becomes a way to question the medium itself, its materiality, its gestures, and its narrative potential.
Working with film in the digital age is not a nostalgic act, but a deliberate choice. Film introduces texture, grain, and unpredictability—a sense of time and process that stands in contrast to the instantaneity of modern image culture. When I work with large format cameras like 8×10 or 4×5, the level of detail and depth captured is impossible to reproduce with a digital body.At the same time, digital techniques allow for refinement, manipulation, and a kind of precision that film can’t offer. By combining both approaches, I aim to build a photographic language that is rooted yet fluid—where imperfection meets control, and memory merges with abstraction.
DSM.LAB is not just a space to produce images, but a space to think through images. A place where formats are questioned, where time is stretched, where photography becomes a way of observing, resisting, remembering—and where the act of seeing becomes just as meaningful as what is seen.
Each image is the result of a hybrid process. It often begins with the gear: a 35mm, medium, or large format camera. The negatives are developed in carefully selected labs around the world, then scanned and reworked digitally at home. There’s no fixed method—only a desire to stay open to what each tool, each project, each accident, and each frame might reveal.
DSM.LAB 是我的摄影实践空间，一个融合胶片与数码媒介的个人创作平台。二者并非彼此对立，而是作为互补的技术手段，在持续探索的过程中协同发挥作用。
DSM.LAB 并非传统意义上的技术实验室，而更接近于一份动态演进的视觉笔记与作品集。其形态由我长期开展的摄影研究逐步塑造而成，每个项目均构成对摄影媒介本身——包括其物质性、操作方式及叙事潜能的深入反思与探讨。
在数字影像高度普及的当下，选择使用胶片并非出于怀旧情绪，而是一种具有明确意图的创作决策。胶片所呈现的质感、颗粒结构以及不可预知性，赋予图像以时间性与过程感，从而与当代图像文化中普遍存在的即时性形成鲜明对照。尤其在使用8×10或4×5等大画幅相机进行拍摄时，其所能捕捉的细节层次与空间深度，是目前数码设备难以完全复制的。
与此同时，数字技术则提供了后期精修、图像操控以及高度精确的处理能力，这些是胶片工艺所不具备的优势。通过整合两种技术路径，我致力于构建一种兼具根基性与灵活性的摄影语言——在偶然与控制之间取得平衡，使记忆与抽象得以交融。
因此，DSM.LAB 不仅是一个图像生产的场所，更是一个以图像为媒介进行思考的空间。在此过程中，成像格式被重新审视，时间维度被延展，摄影成为观察现实、表达抵抗、留存记忆的方式；而“观看”这一行为本身，亦与“被观看之物”具有同等重要的意义。
每幅作品均源于一套混合工作流程：通常始于35毫米、中画幅或大画幅相机的拍摄实践；随后，底片交由全球范围内经严格筛选的专业暗房进行冲洗处理，继而扫描并在我个人工作室中完成数字化再加工。整个过程并无固定范式，唯一秉持的原则是保持开放态度，以接纳不同工具、项目、偶发因素及每一帧画面可能揭示的潜在意义。
