r er geagradrs d s
b. vollmer
lucie & simon
jean-françois bauret jean - f r an ç ois b a ure t pascal ferro pascal fe r ro l u cie &lucie si monet simon miche l pe ir o michel peiro f er n an d p io fernand pio f réd é r i q ue p l a s cha r l frédérique o tte t a ng uy plas charlotte tanguy
revue de photographie photographic review 1
#2
the other
”L’autre”, par Pascal Ferro.
Jean-François Bauret Charlotte Tanguy Pascal Ferro Frédérique Plas Michel Peiro Fernand Pio Lucie & Simon
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The other
One’s self-image. The wish to be portrayed in a picture is inherent in human nature— one that is maybe less (maybe more) popular today because the opportunities to see oneself portrayed now are immense. From portraits of the Fayoum, dating from the beginning of our era and clearly asserting the identity of the individual on his journey to the hereafter, to those strikingly realistic paintings from Flanders at the end of the Middle Ages, and to the psychological portraits of the Age of Enlightenment, the representation of the human face reveals the individuality of each person. Since the Renaissance, man has affirmed his place at the centre of an opening world. The painter has moved from anonymity to declare himself as much an artist as an individual, assuming an importance equal to that of his subject. The art of the portrait is nevertheless still bound to the patron. To commission a portrait is an assertion of the patron’s devotion, of his power, or simply of his presence among the living. Photography obeys the same rules. From its invention in the 19th century, it has continued to rely upon the commission. Carjat and Nadar captured the images of the Great and the Good of that century: politicians, bourgeois, artists— and many more. The individual regards the camera in the same way that he scrutinizes himself in a mirror … … the portrait is thus an act of narcissism. Photography is a trace, a mark. At first sight, it appears to be a rather straightforward reflection, the image of an artless individual. However, more often than not it reveals the image of a subject who is in fact posing. ”I am close enough to the model that I could touch him, and there is nothing between us except that which passed while we watched one another. This exchange involves some manipulations and some submissions. It is a relationship that is not ‘allowed’ in everyday life.” Richard Avedon ( photographer 1923–2004) The photographed person adopts a particular image … one among many others. As a quest for authenticity here, or for appearance there, the art of the portrait oscillates from one extreme to the other. Tied to the imitation or its rejection through its deconstruction, the representation of the human face keeps questioning the photographic medium across time and place. Altogether unmovable and constantly renewed … 3
… the portrait is a matter of conventions. It is generally accepted that an old picture, whatever its quality, is of greater value than a recent one. It possesses a sentimental value. A face from the past has a greater aura than a contemporary one, no doubt because of its ”ça a été” (”it has been”) (Roland Barthes, La Chambre Claire, 1980). Looking at old photographs is often like looking into dead people’s eyes, whether they be beloved or unknown: a special link in the memory. Painted portraits from ancient or modern times, photographs from two centuries ago or today, would be a way to say across the ages to the Almighty, or just to those around us, ”I am here—I have been” … … the portrait is a struggle against oblivion. In the course of time, and with the events of his life, the subject’s face changes. The photographer stores up instant-faces as he meets them; there are few photographers tied to one single model. Self-portrait is no exception to the rule, thanks to the various faces adopted by the subject-photographer. The portraitist experiences a kind of predatory bulimia—he feels the need to feed upon others. ”Love is the exception of emptiness” Camille Laurens (writer, 1957–), Cet absent-là, 2004. ”By taking your picture, I ties you to me if I want to, I put you into my world, I absorb you a little, and you can do nothing about it …” Hervé Guibert (writer/photographer. 1955–1991), L’image fantôme, 1981. This work, which consists in an accumulation of images, of faces and existences, meets no no limit; it is infinite. … the portrait is an act of collection. Going beyond the memory-realism of the artisan photographer, the photographer-as-artist gives his own personal perception of the other, at one moment and in a given context. For, beyond the mechanical, chemical and digital processes of his camera, the photographer interacts with his subject and inevitably, in so doing, also reveals something of himself. Every representation of the other entails some touch of self-identification; in other words, of ”style”. 4
Envy, modesty … self-expression, self portrayal … are as much breaking points between intention and effect for photography as for they are for portraiture … the portrait is the achievement of an other self.
Pascal Ferro, October 2009
Martha, Jean-François Bauret
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The idea of the series presented here is not exhaustively to cover the whole domain. Its diversity is immense. Quite naturally, it seemed to me that a consistency was born around these deliberately constructed images, portraits posed in which incessant comings and goings establish themselves between the subject, the photographer and the viewer. An angle of attack as an ”other”. Jean-François Bauret shows, with great sobriety, a being without make-up. In the end, it is the essence of this other who looks at me. Charlotte Tanguy presents us with souvenir pictures that might belong to any one of us. Pascal Ferro exposes the inner being by the use of clearly stated optical imperfections. Fréderique Plas is interested in relaxation, in confidence, in that state of abandonment to which the subject sometimes surrenders. Michel Peiro frames two beings, a kind of tragi-comedy of couples who together become just one: at once grotesque and beautiful. Fernando Pio shows us the instant in each of these faces— but also time past and time passing. Lucie & Simon give us, in the form of a story and from an unexpected angle, the intimacy of everyday reality. 6
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j ean - fr anรง o is b a ure t
Dear Pierre, Dear Pascal,
You asked me to speak about the portrait, and I think about the photos on porcelain that we often see on tombstones. The portrait consists in leaving a trace of our passage, a remembrance in stone or in image. One can wonder about the image we would like to put on our grave: naked or fully clothed, true to life or pretence; whereas we need to dissemble or to act the fool in the eternal rest, once the curtain falls. I often think about the beautiful pictures of the condemned, awaiting their death at the time of the Russian revolution; unfortunately, instead of reality, as a race we prefer the retouched faces, without lines or blemishes, of Princes and Princesses, forever young in their Sunday best. I send you twenty pictures that I like, both old and new, from which you can choose the most genuine and the most true. Yours in friendship Jfb
http://jfbauret.free.fr/
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Michèle
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Publicité Sélimaille
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Pierral
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Robert et Monique
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Trois femmes
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Lydia
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Marie
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Bénédicte et Lola
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Henri
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Marie et Laura
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Isabelle
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Laurent 23
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c h ar l o tt e t a ng uy Museum These photographs constitute a collection of universal ancestors, beyond any affective value (we systematically ignore their identity, their name, what their life has been)—a photographic meta-album in which the symbol take precedence over the reality. Photographs photographed act as an echo in the double production of souvenir pictures: scenography at the time of taking, and then disposition in space as these family photographs are displayed upon mantelpieces. The ”Museum” series testifies to our relationship with family portraits in their role as windows to a history that escapes us, one in which the actors are too distant and unknown to exist outside of the still, sometimes unique, picture that we have of them, and upon which we rely in our attempt to locate ourselves in a time that is beyond our own rightful existence. Charlotte Tanguy 210 rue Saint-Maur 75010 Paris 06 78 49 56 70 www.charlottetanguy.fr
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pascal f e r ro ”Veduta” ”Italian for ‘view’, which we can understand as that which is seen, and thus how it is seen” ( Wikipedia). In the Renaissance, with the invention of perspective, the window in the background opens onto a world often imaginary and infinite. It is there to stimulate the gaze. ”For me, the painting is like a window” (Alberti, 1435). In a movement of inverse perspective, I want to direct this opening, a purely graphic element, towards the inwardness of the being when he is photographed. The wish to show; the wish to hide. When we look at someone, we only see a half of thjem; our vision is a little fuzzy, like when we think of a loved one by recalling our memory of them. The view that one has of another is inevitably partial, fragmentary, the story of the frame in which we are established.
Pascal Ferro Photographie www.pascalferro.com 26, rue des Rois de Majorque 66 000 Perpignan Tel : +33 (0) 04 68 35 40 12 +33 (0) 06 22 33 18 34 Contact : pe.ferro@yahoo.fr
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fr é d é r i que p la s On my couch Here are some portraits of some people I wanted to photograph on my couch. Among others, I had in mind memories of Lucian Freud’s paintings, Young woman on a couch, and a study I made of a friend, a profile, which I found very intimate. I wanted a shared desire: that these people would simultaneously like to be photographed there, on this couch, and that they would like to search for a way to place their body, their head, their arms, their hands… My desire was to record something – a position, a gesture, a glance, a detail – of their intimate nature, an aim perhaps theoretical because of my presence. However sometimes, they were nearly asleep, so I told myself that the work was approaching something intimate, a release before slumber, a confidence… www.frederiqueplas.com frederiqueplas@free.fr + 33 (0)6 63 33 96 88
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Frédérique Plas
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m i ch e l p e ir o Fusion #1 This series was born out of a furtive meeting with two comedians, Claire and Tomas. What to do, what to set up when we do not know each other and when we meet the time of a shooting? It is here that their talent and their improvisation makes complete sense. Soft masses mixing at the will of random contacts, the faces merge and mix, upsetting the portrait’s (too) established frame of reference. A fusion of two ”Some caricatures are more true to life than portraits, caricatures in which the exaggeration is hardly noticeable; conversely, one can overexaggerate without obtaining the true effect of caricature.” Bergson, Le Rire, 1899.
Mic h el Peir o Ph o t o g ra p h i e s w w w.m i c he l pe i ro.c om T él : +3 3 ( 0 ) 6 5 0 5 4 4 1 8 7 m ic h el.p eiro @ g m a i l . co m
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fer n an d p io For several years now, for many people in big business the problem of ageing has turned itself into a way to increase their market share. As life expectancy increases, bringing with it a procession of opportunities, our elders would become considerable players of our times. No longer would they remain charming, inoffensive people, living their reclusive lives at home or in retirement complexes, more often than not helpless to escape the monotony of their final days, resigned to dull, joyless lives, refugees in a corner of their memories (when indeed their momories still function). Many media present them as still full of vigour, still active, spending their money, looking after themselves, teaching themselves new technologies. The contemporary society promote this kind of behaviour, applauding their achievement, like a new, Western version of ”Stakhanovism”. If one believes advertisers and information campaigns in general, they are the examples everyone should follow. Besides, don’t we display our centenarians as well-deserving people? Obviously, there is the spectre of illness, of Aalzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and many other conditions, but so what? A dual language, a dual truth arises: sick, but alive and kicking; nostalgic, but aware of the issues of the day; desperately alone, but always the centre of attention. This fuss around them hardly matters; those I’ve been close to have other things on their minds. As their time approaches, they arm themselves as best they can. To listen to some of them, it seems as though an immense weariness makes death seem like a relief, a deliverance. Others, on the other hand, still animated by a ferocious appetite for life, evoke the unspoken and insurmountable anxieties that fill their sleepless nights. Fernand Pio tel: 04 90 86 22 61 / 06 62 24 54 30 mail: fernandpio2@wanadoo.fr http://www.fernand-pio.ovh.org/
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lu ci e & s imon
Scenes of life
In this work, characters are photographed in their usual life. The images show moments of intimacy, precious and delicate, which beyond their simplicity put into light an everyday life reality. The point of view, from the ceiling or the sky, breaks this commonness by representing in a pictorial way those pieces of humanity. By recreating a visual universe, reorganizing proportions and erasing the notion of perspective, this vision provokes and makes the viewer lose his usual, conventional reading marks. The character is set in a delimited space. Main element of the photograph, the confrontation between trivial matter and its aesthetic representation acts toward him as a feeling telltale. It is thru these emotions and infinitely human and romantic feelings that the symbolic character gives his relevance and strength to the image : express the harassment of the heart and the soul, the “ vertigo of everyday life “ buried under this trivial appearance.
Lucie & Simon +336.18.48.60.19 10 rue de Nesle 75006 Paris - France www.lucieandsimon.com
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La revue de photographie Regards est éditée par l’association bla-blART 20 rue JB Lulli, 66000 Perpignan, France. Directeur de publication: Pierre Corratgé Comité d’édition: Claude Belime, Pierre Corratgé, Jean Dauriach, Pascal Ferro, Michel Peiro. Communication: Odile Corratgé. Réalisation technique: Pierre Corratgé. Responsable de l’édition en langue anglaise: Sophie Mérou, , merci à Martyn Oliver pour son aide précieuse Impression de la version papier par Crealink, Perpignan Contact: revueregards@yahoo.fr
S’abonner à la revue: ici
Pour soumettre un dossier pour une édition ultérieure: ici
Prochains numeros: • Hors Série 1: Photographie et Ecriture • Polaroid (parution janvier 2010, direction: Pierre Corratgé) • Rencontres (parution avril 2010, direction: Michel Peiro)
Partenariat, publicité: ici
Toutes les photographies publiées dans la revue de photographie Regards sont soumises au copyrignt. Toute reproduction ou publication est interdite sans accord de l’auteur. ISBN en cours.
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