From the outset, the SFP (French photography society) has held exhibitions and published catalogues. This goes back to 1855, just a year after the society was founded in Paris by a group of passionate experimental photographers.
By the end of the 19th century, the SFP had taken on an international outlook: in its reviews produced by international reporters, and in its exhibitions that looked beyond national boundaries. At the turn of the 20th century, the first international fine art photography fair marked the start of a series of travelling exhibitions visiting different countries. Half a century later, after the last show held in 1953, the SFP started to run two kinds of event: retrospective exhibitions drawing on its historical collections, and themed exhibitions involving photo clubs from across the world.
This is how the photographs on show in “Brazil-France-Brazil” came to be exhibited and exchanged. In the 1950s, Brazil underwent massive urban expansion and São Paulo was transformed by architectural developments. It was all recorded by photographers who included people in the scenes or framed their images in such a way as to create abstract effects, playing with the architectural masses. The modernity is also contrasted against the foliage patterns that bear witness to a profound attachment to the earth and the environment. The elaborate composition of the greys in the silver prints and the black and white contrasts confirmed the Brazilian tendency towards experimentation and abstraction in photography.
Luce Lebart and Lucas Mendes Menezes
Brazil – France – Brazil
Until 3 October 2016
La Chambre claire
Hall de la Présidence (building P)
Université Rennes 2
Place du Recteur Henri Le Moal
35043 Rennes, France
