Romain Laprade: Sunset Ketchup
Gallery FIFTY ONE TOO is proud to present Sunset Ketchup, the debut solo exhibition by Romain Laprade in both Belgium and the gallery’s program. Running from May 29 through July 12, 2025, this exhibition introduces viewers to Laprade’s distinctive visual world.
Laprade’s photography captures quiet moments with elegance and restraint, turning everyday environments into scenes filled with quiet wonder. With a background in graphic design and publishing, he brings a refined visual clarity to each frame. His images are deliberate yet intuitive, guided by a deep sense of form, light, and composition.
The exhibition’s title — Sunset Ketchup — merges the poetic with the unexpected: the calm of a setting sun set against the whimsical image of a condiment bottle. This unlikely pairing reflects the subtle contrasts that define Laprade’s work: between structure and softness, clarity and ambiguity, the real and the abstract.
Originally from Limoges and now based in Paris, Laprade draws from modernist design and cinematic aesthetics. His photographs are devoid of human presence but are filled with its echo — the remnants of activity linger in stairwells, on empty patios, or behind drawn curtains. Space, for him, becomes a vessel for mood and memory.
Laprade seeks out the often-ignored: the slant of sun on a stucco wall, a stairwell half in shadow, the quiet geometry of urban corners. These fragments become meditative studies that suggest stories without telling them outright. Rather than documenting, his work distills — stripping scenes down to light, color, and shape to reveal something essential.
While rooted in a graphic sensibility, his photographs also recall the atmosphere of cinema. Carefully framed and softly colored, they suggest scenes suspended in time, reminiscent of film stills. These cinematic references remain subtle, adding texture rather than leading the narrative.
Sunset Ketchup unfolds as a visual cadence — a sequence of images in quiet dialogue. It invites viewers into a slowed-down, contemplative experience where nothing shouts, but everything resonates. The familiar becomes unfamiliar, and the mundane is granted a quiet dignity. Through his lens, Romain Laprade invites us to linger in stillness, to reconsider what we pass by, and to find meaning in silence, form, and light.
About the Author
Romain Laprade is a 34-year-old French photographer. After completing his studies, he began his career as a graphic designer at Vogue Paris, followed by a position at Holiday magazine. However, his long-standing passion for photography — which began when he was just 15 — eventually became his full-time pursuit.
In just a few years, Laprade has developed a distinctive and quietly compelling visual language. His work is recognized for its ability to elevate ordinary details into striking, iconic images. Warm tones, refined compositions, and a luminous quality define his style, drawing attention from both the art world and major brands alike. His photographs have appeared in campaigns and editorial projects for names such as Aesop, Rimowa, Mr Porter, Hermès, and Isabel Marant. Laprade’s visual universe is built around structure and surface — his eye drawn to minimalist forms, bold shadows, and overlooked fragments of space. Often inspired by modernist architecture, his work distills everyday scenes into poetic compositions. Over the past five years, his body of work has grown into a quiet yet resonant exploration of beauty, simplicity, and the subtle drama of stillness. Romain Laprade’s photographs are defined by their economy of elements: light, structure, and color serve as the core of his compositions. Avoiding human subjects, he instead captures the presence people leave behind — in spaces designed, inhabited, and then briefly abandoned.
His influences include modernist architecture, shadow play, and marginal spaces often overlooked. With a keen sense for design and subtle emotion, Laprade’s work transforms the unnoticed into something quietly powerful, offering a new lens through which to experience the ordinary.
Romain Laprade: Sunset Ketchup
May 29 – July 12, 2025
Gallery FIFTY ONE TOO – Antwerp – Belgium
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