"To impose these complex feelings that combine contemplation and deciphering, understanding and reverie, Guillaume Zuili resorts to what is most photographic in the practice of images: the print. A salutary reminder that photography only exists in virtual, even ephemeral form – the one that apparently wins today – if it does not materialize, if it does not become an object, even if it is made of paper and fragile. He reminds us, in fact, that these sheets, learned and refined, fruits of artisanal know-how and perpetual reinterpretations, vibrate with the often uncontrollable tones of the toning, move by the way in which the silver grains couple with the weaves of the paper, affirming both the velvety depth of the blacks and the shades of gray that modulate and caress the forms. This is where a perception of time is inscribed, sometimes amused under its charming exterior, which takes distance and sends us back to the dream of palm trees and pin-ups, motifs that pop art summoned and that advertising diverts. Time stopped and at the same time suspended between yesterday, which neither the photographer nor what he depicts knew, and today, which he uses to send us back to a universe that we do not know how to see, that he makes exist, which is certainly an illusion, but which presents itself as obvious as he knows how to convince us by evoking memories, a peaceful feeling of time, a possible escape into the dream that softens the decor and opens up a possible space for us. All served by matter, materials, sensualities laid down and inscribed in gelatin, the leaf, the successive layers worked by light.", excerpt from the preface by Christian Caujolle