Photography and Its History in Paris and Beyond
19 October 2003
Oakland, California
This summer, the P in Paris stood for Photography. In this cultural capital which is never lacking in photographic exhibitions, a number of this past season's shows stood apart because together they unwittingly traced a path through the history of the medium. Even though all these shows have by now closed their doors in Paris, some can be enjoyed at different venues while others have left a legacy of notable publications or online resources.
In the beginning, there was Daguerre
The story began at the Musée d'Orsay, where an exhibition entitled "The French Daguerreotype - A photographic object" (13 May - 17 August) provided a lesson in the very origins of photography.
Interesting primarily from a historic point of view rather than for the visual appeal of its images, this massive exhibition told the story of the work of Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre, through hundreds of daguerreotypes as well as cameras, books, letters and manuscripts.
At first working independently and subsequently together, these two men created the Daguerreotype, a direct positive image on a sheet of copper plate with a thin coat of silver, which provided a remarkable level of detail. Niépce died before the work was finalised but Daguerre's continued efforts came to fruition. In January 1839, a presentation of this new process to the Academy of Science of Paris marked what some consider to be the official date of birth of photography.
In the early years, the long exposure times of the daguerreotype made portraiture far from ideal. Nonetheless portraits were the dominant subject of the 250 daguerreotypes included in the 300 exhibits. Landscapes included numerous pictures of Paris, "the most daguerreotyped city in the world."
The exhibition is currently at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, until 4 January 2004, with the title "The Dawn of Photography: French Daguerreotypes, 1839-1855".
According to the New York Times, "The show, half the size it was in Paris this summer, is still too large and repetitive, daguerreotypes beings small and intricate and hard to digest by the dozens, but it is lucid and handsome."
For more information, see the Metropolitan's website, www.metmuseum.org (Special Exhibitions).
Photography at the Turn of the Century
A couple of decades down the historical path, the Orsay also presented "Photography at the Turn of the Century: from Pictorialism to Eugène Atget" (16 July - 19 October).
The simplification of photographic techniques begun in the 1870s and the subsequent development of small portable cameras, notably by Kodak, around 1888, gave "birth to a new aesthetics of the snapshot, one of the characteristics of photography at the turn of the century."
Amateurs, including many artists like Edgar Degas and engraver Henri Rivière, who lacked the time to learn the technique themselves were now able to eliminate the intermediary and create at last their own pictures.
Conversely, a focus on technique allowed Pictorialism, a movement born in France and England, to fulfill the aim of escaping "documentary truth" and to produce slightly blurred pictures with "a symbolist inspiration". The leader of this movement in America was Alfred Stieglitz, renowned photographer and publisher of "Camera Work" magazine.
The entire final section of the exhibition was dedicated to Eugène Atget (1857-1927). Creating a detailed and complete historical record of old Paris and its surroundings was the purpose towards which he worked systematically for 30 years. He produced over 10 000 photographs of streets from multiple angles, mansions in stages from the whole to the details, street characters like peddlers, road workers, bakers, postmen etc. - in the words of his friend, André Calmette, "everything in Paris and its environs that was artistic and picturesque."
As with the Daguerreotype exhibition, this show was primarily interesting from a historical viewpoint.
For more information and sample photos, see the website of the Musée d'Orsay: www.musee-orsay.fr.
The child prodigy of photography
The Centre Pompidou, home of the National Museum of Modern Art, presented a large retrospective, "Jacques Henri Lartigue, A Life's Diary" (L'album d'une vie) (4 June - 22 September).
The "boy wonder" of photography, Lartigue (1894-1986), born in a very well-to-do family, took his first shots at age six and continued to photograph almost to his death. Ironically, he did not consider himself a photographer until he was over seventy, preferring to think of himself as a painter.
So much so that when the President of the French Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, called him in person to request that he takes the official shot of his presidency, "I replied that it was impossible, that I didn't know how to do that sort of thing, and that my photos were nothing like 'official photos.' Exactly, he said, that's exactly what he wants."
But he pursued his favourite pastime - photography - with the enthusiasm and passion that were characteristic of his entire life. "I want to photograph everything. Everything. Everything."
He did just that and would glue his pictures into albums along with extensive notes as well as shots taken by other people - thus creating a total of 130 volumes.
His career took off after the 1963 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Forty-one of those photographs were borrowed for the Pompidou show which also included some of his paintings.
But it was the 100 albums that formed the core of the exhibition, along with many prints and quotes extracted from them. Additionally, over 14 000 pages of his albums were projected on screen.
The exhibition was a testament to the spirit of Lartigue - artist, album-keeper, writer, photographer - and his prints and quotes exuded his infectious zest for life and his delightful sense of humour.
Whether shooting his family in their outings, games, sports activities or fun experiments with cars and planes, whether attempting to freeze motion as he had his cousin fly down the stairs or his brother leap down a wall, or whether making portraits of the elegant women in his life, true to his philosophy, he managed to "find something every day to be thrilled about."
The 400-page companion book, "Lartigue, L'album d'une vie", is available from the Centre Pompidou website (www.centrepompidou.fr) as well as through online booksellers (list price 59 EUR).
For more information on the artist, see also www.lartigue.org.
The Master
Undoubtedly, the most important photographic event of the summer was the superb retrospective of the great master Henri Cartier-Bresson. After three months, it closed its doors at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Francois Mitterand branch, on 27 July, having drawn huge crowds which often queued for 45 minutes or longer.
The exhibition was entitled "De qui s'agit-il" (Who is it about?) - a play on his famous catchphrase "De quoi s'agit-il?" (What is it about?) Through several hundred photographs, as well as numerous designs, portraits of the artist - some taken by his wife, photographer Martine Franck - biographical memorabilia, and copies of magazines to which he contributed, like LIFE and Paris Match, it traced a prolific career of more than four decades and extensive travels throughout the world, often during important historical times.
From the liberation of Paris which he was able to witness having escaped after three years in a German prison, from Mexico to Cuba, from Japan to China where he documented the last days of the Kuomintang before Mao's accession, from Indonesia to India where he photographed Ghandi's funeral, his photographs, mostly black-and-white, with an uncanny sense of geometry, and shot with a simple Leica camera, embody what he has called "the decisive moment".
In 1974, HCB, a co-founder of the Magnum photo agency, put an end to his peripatetic photography and has since dedicated himself almost exclusively to his passion for drawing and painting which he continues to practice at age 95 in Paris and samples of which were also on display at the Bibliothèque. "The photograph is an immediate action. The drawing a meditation", he has said.
This do-not-miss exhibition, under the English title "The Man, the Image & the World", can currently be viewed at the Fundacio La Caixa in Barcelona until 5 January 2004. It will then move to Berlin from 26 April to 15 August 2004, from there to the Palazzo Esposizini in Rome from 30 September 2004 until 15 January 2005 and then to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh from 4 June to 30 September 2005.
The companion book is available in French under the title "De qui s'agit-il" (429 pages, 55 EUR) and in English as "The Man, the Image & the World" (432 pages, USD 75) (See Magnum's website for details.)
More than 550 of HCB's photographs can be viewed in an online slideshow on Magnum's website (www.magnumphotos.com, click on Books and select "De qui s'agit-il?")
The Master's choices
The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson opened its doors last spring in a quiet corner of the 14th "arrondissement", close to the Montparnasse tower. Created by HCB himself, his wife Martine Franck and their daughter Melanie, it is housed in a prize-winning building which used to be known as "La maison des artistes" (The Artists' House) and which HCB frequented at some point in his life. The foundation's aim is "to preserve the independence and keep alive the spirit of HCB's work."
The inaugural show, "Les choix d'Henri" (The Choices of Henri), a selection of 90 photographs from Cartier-Bresson's own collection, provided a "who's who" in the history of 19th and 20th century photography: Walker Evans, Robert Doisneau, Sebastião Salgado, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, as well as Cartier-Bresson's fellow founders of Magnum, David Seymour, Robert Capa and George Rodger, were some of the names whose images were on display on two floors.
"I have chosen these images: I find them stimulating and moving and they give me pleasure. Morally committed photographers, poets or straightforward talented observers, it's a long list and there'll have to be several shows to display them all!" declared HCB.
A small sample of these photographs can be found on the Foundation's website: www.henricartierbresson.org, (under Exhibitions, Archives) along with extensive information on the work of the foundation.
Currently on display at the Foundation is the work of Austrian photographer Inge Morath who became assistant to HCB after joining Magnum at the invitation of Robert Capa (open until 29 November 2003.)
The Foundation has presented the first Henri Cartier-Bresson International Award, a biennial 30 000 EUR prize, to Larry Towell for his project "The walls of no-man's land: Palestine."
Photojournalism
In the past few years, the tall railings of the beautiful Luxembourg Garden (Jardin du Luxembourg) have been hosting photographic exhibitions sponsored by the French Senate whose seat is the Luxembourg Palace within the park. One of this summer's two exhibitions, "Destins Croisés" ("Crossed Destinies"), running from 1 June till 30 September on the north side of the garden, displayed the work of accomplished humanitarian photojournalist Reza.
Born in Iran in 1952, an architect by training, he turned to photography during the Iranian revolution. He was jailed for three years and was exiled in 1981. He has visited most of the world's troublespots and has contributed to the most prestigious news publications - including Newsweek, Time, Life, New York Times, Stern, Der Spiegel, Figaro, L'Express, Le Monde, Observer, Independent and Sunday Times Magazine. Since 1990 he has been working with National Geographic.
His commitment to human rights has not been manifested solely through his photography. He also served as consultant to the United Nations' humanitarian programme in Afghanistan, has worked for UNICEF, and co-founded AÏNA, an organization which aims to support "democracy in Afghanistan through the development of media and cultural expression."
In "Destins Croisés", the giant size of the panels, the richly saturated colours and intelligent, often poignant compositions of the images, as well as the incisive remarks that accompanied each one made for a most powerful testament to the destructive, inhumane impact of war and oppression throughout the world.
The dates and nameplaces may vary - China, Turkmenistan, Egypt, Kurdistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Turkey - but the stories remain the same: people denied of their civil rights, suffering in poverty and destitution, persecuted by oppressive regimes.
Thirty-six of the photographs can be viewed on the exhibition's website, www.destinscroises.org, and many more in the 160-page book "Destins Croisés, Carnets d'un reporter photographe" (20 EUR) also available through the site (click on Librairie).
See also www.ainaworld.org for information on AÏNA.
Contemporary Art
To conclude this stroll through photographic history, a visit to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie was de rigueur. Centrally located in the Marais and dedicated to contemporary photographic art, it is the ideal place to catch up with the work of modern artists.
Most notable of this summer's exhibits was the work of internationally renowned fashion and commercial photographer, Sarah Moon. Her poetic "Circuss" images - photographs and a short film - told the sad story of the end of a circus, a free adaptation of Andersen's "Little Match Girl".
For more information on the Maison, see the website www.mep-fr.org.
