The 44th Rencontres began with a Monday evening screening at the Théâtre Antique of a short from Patrick Zachmann on Sergio Larrain. Filmed in Chile in 1999, the film, although frustratingly short, is perhaps the precursor to a more in-depth work. Certain phrases taken from Larrain’s correspondence particularly captured my attention. I experienced them as outbursts from the dead photographer that came at me out of a background of pacific, ecological and spiritual ideas “to save man and the planet“.
Ten years down the line, his views are still very current, even perhaps somewhat avant-garde, preceding by a few months as they do the visual and technological turning point brought about by the events of September 11th 2001. They make you think, come at you like final words of wisdom directed towards us, the young. “You (Magnum), you don’t bother with causes, the roots of situations. You allow yourselves to be carried away on a wave of events. You only add to the confusion with your photos. There’s no desire to change things, understand them, explain, find solutions. We’re currently standing by and allowing the planet to be destroyed amidst the general chaos that’s gaining ground everywhere. We have to try and understand what’s going on if we want to change things and put forward new approaches. Otherwise things will only get worse. Love for life, love for reality, love for peace, order and love for love.” – Sergio Larrain.The Chilean also left Zachmann something else, a booklet in which we find the symbolic phrase “Evolution not Revolution” in the middle of a white page.
This year at Arles, there has been something of a revolution, led by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Van Gogh foundation, where he is exhibiting his series under this same title, although there is nothing political about it. Evolution is to be found at the Saint-Césaire convent, which is hosting the magnificent exhibition of Viviane Sassen, whom can henceforth be called the rightful heir to Guy Bourdin. Bourdin himself isn’t far away, with a presentation of an entirely unknown part of his œuvre: his early black and white photos from the Fifties, bearing witness to the existence of peace in his world of provocation.
At the Ateliers, there’s life, the Gordon Parks exhibition reminds us of how photography can serve as transposition of humanist values. Beauty is also present, in the room given over to Russian photographer Nikolay Bakharev. We get order from the Finn Arno Rafael Minkkinen and love from Jacques Henri Lartigue in Bibi, his wife and subject for twelve years. Reality was to be found, not in Arles, but at Salin de Giraud, a little Camargue village and theatre, this year, to the Night of the Year. Reality meant an interminable bus journey with bats and thousands of mosquitos flying into the windscreen, blinding the driver, and also a series of photographs and some good giggles .
Jonas Cuénin
