The first UK exhibition of the internationally renowned photographer Laurence de Vogüé opens exclusively at The Minster Gallery in Winchester on 10 November. It continues until 10 December 2017.

Laurence de Vogüé, who was born in Paris in 1979, has exhibited in galleries in Paris and Brussels and contributed to collections in France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. She studied at the American University in Paris, Berkeley University in the USA and Cambridge University in the UK.

Acknowledging that people often describe her photographs as being like paintings, Laurence said: “I paint with light. My camera is my brush. My canvas is the building, the people, the landscape or seascape around me. My paint is the light.”

Art critic and collector Eric Dem Collec said: “We have a relationship with her photographs. They transmit an unusual feeling, that of a special tranquility. I had previously only experienced this when looking at certain paintings.”

Interested in photography from a young age, Laurence got her first camera as a 12th birthday present. However it was the Minolta Reflex with two lenses she was given as a sixteen year old that ignited her passion. Today she uses a Leica M9 and the Nikon D800 and D5.

Laurence decided, even after digital photography arrived, that she wanted to follow in the tradition of the great photographers of the past.

“I made an agreement with myself that I would treat my digital camera as a film camera,” she explained. “I do not take hundreds of pictures: each picture is thought through carefully. There is no reframing/trimming, no brushing, no montage, no superimposition. I set all the settings manually just as I would on a film camera.”

In the process of developing, she brings out phosphorescent colours and ghostly shades contained within the images. “I love colours and contrasts. I feel that my photographs can capture and give out energy, positivism and enthusiasm for life,” declared Laurence.

Eric Dem Collec asserted: “Movement, vibration and even sound seem to be revealed in the colour.”

Laurence de Vogüé is noted for her vibrant city scenes. “People and their lives interest me: nature and human creations,” said the artist. “What is important to me is that my photographs are alive: they capture life and live on.”

In her new work, Laurence de Vogüé has introduced a new technique: double exposure. “By that, I mean two images taken as one,” she explained. “This enables me to increase the expression of the image. Big Ben and the Wheel show an eternal continuity: time goes by and yet remains. Tradition is opposed to modernism, stability to movement.”

Ines Graham, owner of The Minster Gallery, said: “It is The Minster Gallery’s first photographic exhibition and we are delighted to be presenting Laurence de Vogüé’s work. Her photographs show so well the world we move in, colours or black and white, from monumental architecture to the smallest detail, her instinctive framing of a shot brings humour, joy and sometimes simply contemplation.”

She continued: “We believe Laurence’s work will appeal to British collectors, as it has to those in France and Belgium, because of her unique style and technique and wonderful sense of subjects and colours. Her sensitivity and intuition enable her to meet the challenge of painting with light.”

“Laurence is particularly pleased that her first UK exhibition is in Winchester, because, years ago, her first few months in the UK were actually spent in a school just north of Winchester,” added Ines.

Painting With Light: A Vibrant Journey, an exhibition of work by Laurence de Vogüé, is at The Minster Gallery from 10 November until 10 December 2017. The gallery is in Great Minster Street, Winchester, close to the Cathedral. It is open from 10 – 5 pm Monday to Saturday and at other times by appointment.