Jean-Pierre Laffont’s enchanted interludes
In addition to covering current events, the photographer Jean-Pierre Laffont enjoyed moments of respite photographing American stars. He published a book with the Éditions de la Martinière which brings together the results of these amiable photo shoots.
INSIDE THE FRAME – Water and Color
For the Ernast Haas exhibition, The Visionary Color, presented at Galerie Les Douches until November 9, Blind deciphers an image of this outstanding colorist.
Robert Frank, photographer of the “Americans”, dies
American photographer Robert Frank, one of the most famous of the 20th century, and a pioneer of documentary photography with the book The Americans, died in Inverness, USA, on Monday, September 9, 2019 at the age of 94. His death was confirmed to the New York Times by the Pace-MacGill Gallery, which represented him.
Latin American conflicts on display in London
An exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery presents the work of seventy photographers and artists who witnessed social upheavals in Latin America. From totalitarian regimes and the rise of consumer society, the exhibition offers a visual narrative of a singular, tense period in history.
Visa Pour l’Image 2019: a chain around the paw
Mistreated animals, locked up in tiny cages, exhibited like circus animals before hordes of unscrupulous tourists… Such is the tragic reality captured by Kristen Luce in a moving report currently on display at the Église de Dominicains in Perpignan.
An Eye for Cats
Walter Chandoha photographed cats for seventy-five years: no less than 200,000 photos, many of which have been collected into a major catalogue published by Taschen.
Claudia Andujar and the struggle of a people
At a time when the current Brazilian government’s policies with respect to protecting the Amazon and its populations are enough to send chills up the world’s collective spine, an exhibit of photographs of the Yanomami Indians taken by Claudia Andujar over the course of several decades is currently on display at the Moreira Salles Institute in Rio de Janeiro, before it travels to France for a show at the Fondation Cartier next winter.
Véronique de Viguerie: “I wanted to bear witness to history”
Extreme poverty in Yemen, the war in Afghanistan, forced migration in Bangladesh: the reporter Véronique de Viguerie travels to difficult locations to document conflict and crises. She has decided to publish a large portion of her work with Reporters Without Borders. We talk to a photographer who looks danger straight in the eye.
Fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh dies
The German photographer died on September 3, 2019 at the age of 74. He was famous for his black and white shots of celebrities and models.
Color or Black & White Photos : What to Choose?
Should I photograph in color or black & white? How to decide which option is best suited to the image I want to take? How to make sense of my choice? We are going to address all these questions and help you choose between the timeless black & white and color that offers multiple possibilities.
Leica Award 2019 : Water’s different forms
The young American photographer Mustafah Abdelaziz is the winner of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Each year, this prize awarded by the famous German brand rewards the work of a professional photographer for his or her ability to convey in an aesthetic way the relationship between man and the environment.
INSIDE THE FRAME – What remains
For the exhibition Sally Mann – A Thousand and One Passages to the Jeu de Paume, Blind deciphers an intimate photograph that questions the mother-daughter relationship and disappearance.
Visa pour l’Image: preview of this edition
The 31st International Photojournalism Festival will take place in August in Perpignan. We present a snapshot of some must-see works.
Shunk–Kender, the pioneers of a new genre
The book Shunk–Kender: Art Through the Eye of the Camera (1957–1983), published by Éditions Xavier Barral on the occasion of the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, is a monument. It first introduces the fraught history of the preservation of the artists’ archives after the death of Harry Shunk in 2006. Secondly, it invites the reader to participate in the birth of a brand new genre: art documentation.
Sheron Rupp: The faces of rural America
To create her book Taken From Memory, the American photographer immersed herself in the life of the American countryside, from Arkansas to Vermont, to Kentucky… She took a photographic road-trip to meet the residents of these isolated regions.
Daniel Gordon: deconstructing Photoshop
Daniel Gordon is a 21st century Matisse, reincarnated as a photographer. His works are a combination of both physical collages and digital manipulation, resulting in complex yet playful photographs. Although Gordon is always very composed, he is also in the middle of moving his studio into his new home in Brooklyn with his wife, who is also an artist.
Jim Marshall: Show Me the Picture
The images of music star photographer Jim Marshall are published in a new book by Chronicle Books.
INSIDE THE FRAME – A tragedy round the bend
As the Henry Wessel exhibition, A Dark Thread, ends in a few days at The Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Blind deciphers an image of the famous American photographer.
Adolfo Kaminsky: The photographer forger
The forger of thousands of official documents and a photographer of the world around him, Adolfo Kaminsky has lived a curious life. An exhibition at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris reveals his talent as an image-maker.
Somnyama Ngonyama: Photopoetry by Zanele Muholi
Ninety-six images of the South-African photographer are published in book form by Aperture.
1964: When surfers descended on Biarritz
Published by Atlantica, Biarritz Sixties: Surf Origins looks at the birth of surfing in France in the early 1960s. A social phenomenon, surfing fascinated, and left a mark on, an entire generation. This is the generation of René Bégué who, as a teenager, was part of this singular period and, fifty years later, gathered a collection of original photos, which are accompanied here by moving stories written by Bégué’s friend, Alain Gardinier.
Whether to photograph a stranger
You will often find yourself in a situation where you photograph people you don’t know.
Whether you are working on a news story, traveling, or shooting at home, keep in mind certain rules and choose the right moment in order to show respect towards others while composing the best image possible.
Henry Wessel : Mysterious California
Until August 25, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris pays tribute to a major figure in American photography: Henry Wessel. Called A Dark Thread, the exhibition looks at the artist’s work through the lens of crime fiction. Wessel was an avid fan of the genre which served as an inspiration for his work.
Israel through the lens of twelve photographers
An exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin explores Israel and the West Bank as viewed by a bevy of photographers, including Josef Koudelka, Jeff Wall, and Stephen Shore… It takes us into the heart of a territory shaped by the conflict with Palestine.
Renato D’Agostin: harmony of chaos
Until August 31, Renato d’Agostin is showing his latest work, Harmony of Chaos, at the Thierry Bigaignon Gallery in Paris. The photographer’s approach—abstract work done using silver gelatin photography, a camera, and darkroom techniques—is deployed here in the service of a reflection on the way urban environment impacts humans and their identities.
The 50th Anniversary of the Arles Festival: A retrospective
To blow out the candles in style and celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, the Festival Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles holds a special birthday exhibition. Visit the Église des Trinitaires to see the “Whole Story.”
At the MEP, noir is photography
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) has drawn on its impressive collection of 25,000 works to create an exceptional exhibition on the theme of noir, with clear implications for photography!
A panoply of selfies
As part of the Portrait(s) Festival in Vichy, an exhibition focuses on one of the most popular type of photograph in the world: the selfie. Whether a manifestation of misguided narcissism or a new way of communicating, the selfie oscillates between the best and the worst—of humanity and of photography. We talk with the curator of the exhibition, the photographer Olivier Culmann.
Arles Festival 2019: Helen Levitt’s little theater
The American photographer Helen Levitt has turned children’s portraiture into her playground. An exceptional exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles 2019 spotlights this key facet of the artist’s production.
Alex Prager’s monstrous banalities
Until September 4, FOAM is showing the work of the American photographer Alex Prager. The exhibition offers an overview of her work, foregrounding elaborate mises-en-scène, technical sophistication, and a caustic look at the fetters of glamor.
Arles Festival 2019 : Laurence Aëgerter, a magician of shadows
Among the fifty exhibitions featured this year at the Rencontres d’Arles, one artist in particular emerges from obscurity. The subtle greys of Laurence Aëgerter’s images contrast with the artist’s cheerful and warm personality. On her way back from a book signing at the Croisière, she spoke with us about the project she has worked on for the past five years, and which is now on view under the southern sun.
Arles Festival 2019: Three photographers challenge the image of the woman
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Rencontres d’Arles has dedicated one of the most beautiful spaces in the city, the Espace Van Gogh, to women photographers. The festival pays tribute to a trio of politically engaged women—Abigail Heyman, Eve Arnold, and Susan Meiselas—who, in the early 1970s, contributed to the emancipation of women with their groundbreaking publications.
Tish Murtha: Windows onto anguish
As part of the Portrait(s) Festival in Vichy, an exhibition of twenty photographs by the British photographer Tish Murtha, who died at the age of 56, shows a clear and straightforward vision of the social misery of North East England during the Thatcher era.
Léa Belooussovitch: “All this is also a duty of memory”
Represented by the Paris-Beijing gallery in Paris, the artist Léa Belooussovitch reproduces into drawings often-tragic, painful press photos. With her pastel coloured pencils that she applies to a felt canvas, she takes up the main forms of the image which appears blurry, almost abstract. A unique process that questions our relationship to press images.
Arles Festival 2019: “Seeking out wonder and re-enchantment” by Marina Gadonneix
The series Phénomènes by Marina Gadonneix is one of the highlights of the Rencontres d’Arles 2019. For nearly five years, the artist photographed the reconstructions of natural phenomena such as avalanches, earthquakes, and lightning in scientific laboratories. We are talking to her in sweltering Arles.
Fifty years with the Rencontres d’Arles: the origins and early days of the festival
For fifty years, the Rencontres festival has turned Arles into a world capital of photography. An unmissable event for image enthusiasts, it is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with no fewer than fifty exhibitions, on view until late September. Discussions at a pub, emotions sparked by a unique show, fascination exerted by a single photograph: here is the story of our week in Arles.
Garry Winogrand’s Life in Color
Garry Winogrand’s colour photographs were first unveiled at the New Document exhibition at MoMA in 1967. However, a few days later, the projector caught fire and Winogrand’s color images were never seen again—until now. Fifty-two years after New Document and thirty-five years after Winogrand’s death, Drew Sawyer, the newly appointed curator of the Brooklyn Museum, decided it was time to rediscover Winogrand’s color photographs. The exhibition Garry Winogrand: Color is on view at the Brooklyn Museum in New York until December 8.
Beach photography: How to Shoot Great Beach Pictures?
Holidays at the beach are a perfect opportunity for beautiful photos, especially at sunset, but not only then. Here are some tips, tricks and ideas on beach photography and how to enjoy the seaside and take great beach photos in complete serenity.
Arles Festival 2019: “This is a very rich and surprising archive” by Luce Lebart
Motoscrubber, trench-in plough, micromanipulator, gyroscopic clinometer, penetrometer, inflatable hangar: these terms, as whimsical as they are intriguing, are associated with inventors of boundless imagination. The Saga of Inventions invites you to rediscover numerous early-twentieth-century inventions through the rich archives of the CNRS. We are talking to Luce Lebart, curator of the exhibition.
Arles Festival 2019: Photo brut is brutal
At the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, an exhibition featuring nearly 500 works is dedicated to the photographic practice of art brut. Faced with this very large corpus, the visitor goes from surprise to sadness and sometimes even awe.
Arles Festival 2019: “Stumbling upon a treasure trove is like magic,” says Sam Stourdzé
One of the must-see exhibitions of the 2019 Arles Festival is devoted to the avant-garde magazine Variétés. It features nearly 200 vintage prints by major figures in photography, such as Germaine Krull, Berenice Abbott, and Eli Lotar… We interview the curator of the exhibition and director of the Rencontres d’Arles, Sam Stourdzé.
Arles Festival 2019 : Helen Levitt as seen by Walter Moser
The must-see exhibition of the Festival d’Arles, is a retrospective devoted to the work of Helen Levitt which promises to take us into the heart of the American photographer’s work. The exhibition’s curator, Walter Moser, comments on six selected photographs.
Arles Festival 2019: Illuminated by Laure Tiberghien
Shortlisted for the Prix Découverte Louis Roederer, the young photographer Laure Tiberghien participates for the first time in the Rencontres d’Arles. In the privacy of her lab, the artist plays with light, forms, and colors to reveal the infinite potential of photography, which she defines in her own way. Just as her exhibition is about to open, we have caught up with her and managed to pry some trade secrets…
Arles Festival 2019 : “How to reveal what can’t been shown,” by Emeric Lhuisset
For over fifteen years, Emeric Lhuisset has carried out analysis and reflection on conflict-ridden territories and broad geopolitical issues. For the fiftieth anniversary of the Rencontres d’Arles, he presents an original series entitled Quand les nuages parleront [If Clouds Could Talk]. We present this interview with the artist who sheds light on the disappearance of a place, a culture, and a people.
Arles Festival 2019: “How to find beauty in a disaster zone?” by Michel Poivert
A photoreporter for major magazines, Philippe Chancel spent a number years exploring sites that had fallen prey to world’s upheavals. This activity gave rise to Datazone, an immense and timely project which Chancel carried out in China and the United States, as well as Africa and Europe. On the 50th anniversary of the Rencontres d’Arles, the project will be presented to the public for the first time in its entirety.
