Portraits Photographiques et Uniformes
4 June 2015
BRETONNES exhibition Opening yesterday night at the Musée de Bretagne, Les Champs Libres, in Rennes. Opening of the show at the Musée Bigouden this friday evening. Opening tomorrow afternoon at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Saint Brieuc and at the photographic center GwinZegal in Guingamp.
Time to go back on the field work…
21 May 2015
Only a few days before the launching of the “Portraits in Lace, BRETON WOMEN” book with Thames & Hudson , and Actes Sud(titled “BRETONNES in French). We’ve recently received the first copies! And the book is beautifuly printed and binded. You’ll like the complete description by Yann Guesdon, the 3D sketches by Fred Margueron, the novel by Marie Darrieussecq . If you already own a copy of Wilder Mann, you’ll see that the book has been designed by Léo Favier with a very simi…
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20 April 2015
The ITZA’ series (2004) is finaly on the website. The project was done in the context of a collaboration between the French CNRS and the University of Michigan. I was Invited by the scientist Scott Atran, Ximena Lois and Valentina Vapnarsky to go in the Petén, Guatemala, to produce a series of portraits of the last Maya Itza’ still speaking the traditional Itza’ language. At that time, only a few members of the community were still able to communicate in this language (which was the one of more than 3 millions mayas until the 17th century). The language, as everywhere, being one of the main tool to forward traditions and knowledges, stories, legends, agricultural customs and gestures… So the key was to perpetuate the ITZA’ language. This very narrative series took place in the book “ITZA’ ,Memorias mayas” published by the universidad nacional autonoma de Mexico. The book, written in 3 languages (ITZA’, Spanish and English) was produced in 2010 and is now used by the Bio Itza’ organization as a real tool and document which constitutes a part of the Maya memories.
10 April 2015
Back from Guyane. I’ve been very impressed by the BOBI, an authentic character of the Creole Carnival of Cayenne, South America. It’s the mythological evolution of a bear, coming straight from Europe, and its interpretation comes with a lot of fantasy. Indeed, the visual vocabulary of this elegant bobi is a mix of a bear , an elephant, or maybe a Dasypodidae (Armadillo). It’s anyway a similar figure as we can meet in Europe in our winter traditions. And in French Guiana, the symbol of the bobi may have another layer, coming from the colonial past of this French region of slavery. The BOBI, out of control, refuses the orders of his master and tries to escape. Originally, the Carnival was the exclusive right of the colonizers. Then, the slaves started their own clandestine masquerade. The BOBI is one of these funny figures which also has do to with the quest of freedom. And that’s a good point.
19 March 2015
Soon the BRETONNES on the walls. Already three shows produced and the book on its way to be delivered in time, in may. You’d be lucky enough to find the first copies available, French or English in the end of may. Until that, the four museums showing the series are working actively on this event which is for the first time a collaboration of these four institutions. Discovering the Bretonnes series in its big sizes is really an achievement. For this series, the particular aspect of these photographs, coming from the particular background, and a short dept of field, connects the whole series to the pictorialism of Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Obscura. For sure, this work used the rich iconography of Nabis painters, Breton postcards, and various archetypes from a mythological Bretagne.
2 February 2015
Waiting for the spring! Good time to introduce the “Bretonnes” series. The book will come out in May with Thames & Hudson for its English version (Titled: Portraits in lace: Breton women) and in French with Actes Sud. Four shows will start in June in Bretagne, with the Musée des Champs Libres in Rennes, the photographic center GwinZegal in Guingamp, the Musée Bigouden in Pont l’Abbé and the Musée d’art et d’histoire de Saint-Brieuc. The series will take place in the four very different contexts of these museums where anthropology, ethnography, history, fashion and photography will connect together around the images. More soon!
31 December 2014
How busy 2014 was!
In 2015, will come out the “BRETONNES” book with Actes Sud in French, and Thames & Hudson in English (“Portraits in Lace, Breton women”), simultaneously with the four Bretonnes shows in Bretagne. This series provides a different way to deal with the background and the historic iconography attached to the subject. “Bretonnes” deals with folklorism in this part of France (which is very much alive), and on a broader perspective is focused on the iconic representation of women in the early 20th century. About the other gender, WILDER MANN will be still shown in Italy and France, including a selection of new pictures made this year in England, Ireland and Italy.
And I’m going on with two photographic series in the East (Japan) and in the West (more soon) where Wildness and theatricality still hold a big part in the stories.
30 December 2014
There are still some WILDER MANN around… and I keep meeting them. These are some great moments of joy. This is the making off from the meeting with the Bear of the Comune di Jelsi.
This year, I’ve worked in England, Ireland, Italy. I’ll meet more groups in 2015, a bit further…
29 November 2014
This one is a wren boy, from Dingle, Ireland, photographed early january 2014, in a very strong storm. Hard to stand up there.
WILDER MANN
You still have until the 20th of december to see the WILDER MANN show at the Espace Malraux, in Chambery, France and until the 17th to go at the Chapelle des Calvairiennes, in Mayenne.