Thierry Maindrault’s Monthly Cogitations
We are already in the last length of this year 2024, a year of thirteen moons, which as a whole will not be remembered as a great vintage, particularly for photography. Which can be very positive if we consider that it couldn’t get any worse. So the year ahead will certainly be much better.
In the meantime, I cannot resist sharing, with our colleagues currently at their lowest in their finances, this latest information which made me jump. While many surviving photographers (deprived or robed from the copyrights to their work) have nothing left but the sale of a few images, often to survive, I very much appreciated the friendly and promotional solicitation of the beneficiaries of a very great photographer who passed away.
“X… Black Days … from Saturday, November 30 to Monday, December 2 at midnight, enjoy -30% (€200 instead of €300) on a print (size 18×24 cm) … (this concerns three different images of your choice).
What makes each photograph unique:
Silver print made with an enlarger from the original negative.
Limited edition of 200 copies (per image).
Authenticated by the signatures of the rights holders and the laboratory technician.
Authenticated with a secure chip, guaranteeing their uniqueness and value.”
Incredible, for the record, something that no photographer (and this is valid also for rights holders) is supposed to ignore, when we are talking about 600 copies for three negatives.
“… a print is considered original, provided that it was made by the photographer in person or under his effective control, and that the number of prints is strictly limited to a maximum of 30 copies, all formats, all colours, and all supports combined. Only the intermediate control of the print by the photographer, with the real affixing of his signature during his lifetime and with its real numbering, will allow the print sold to be considered an original”.
In addition, this does not mean that the work itself can automatically be considered an original work.
How is it possible to cheapen the work of a renowned photographer to this extent, to break the market of professionals and to cause certain harm (by assimilation and devaluation) to scrupulous and honest creators? How to oust all these big money earners who ruin the profession by selling at a high price (even under a promotional pretext with marketing authentications) postcards and posters for gift sellers. Professional masochism!
Another little surprise from the most famous photographic institution at this end of the year.
“Also, the Rencontres is offering reduced-price for all-exhibition passes for the next festival! *
This year, give Arles as a gift!”
The photographic image, just like the image of Photography, is clearly being sold off like hot cakes. Arles, with its RIPs, the photographic event with the largest budget, pampered by a host of wealthy patrons who are involved even in the artistic choices, is apparently short of cash! Gee! As if it were already certain that we will all be there in July 2025, without even knowing the brilliant program, which will only be given to us in a few months. Let’s buy all these expensive passes quickly, before they run out. Why not take advantage of it to get those for 2026 (or even 2027)? With good cancellation insurance, of course, an incident can happen so quickly! Should we laugh or cry?
But let’s respect a good balance and offer ourselves an optimistic vision of the coming year with its share of hopes for the future of photography to report, move, note, transport, challenge, etc. The battering rams of the latest ephemeral innovations (although lucrative for someone), will be repeated, praised by thunderous communications. We will be asked — once again or too often — to take the smoke for the fire. Let it be, and too bad for the brainless ones who will get lost in dubious acquisitions or uncontrolled subscriptions. What a pleasure to exchange, during an exhibition, with a young woman who says she was marked by a photograph (in another exhibition) of which her memory gave me a very fine description, revealing her sensitivity touched by this work. It is true that this admirer of the image did not remember the name of the great woman photographer who created this work. Moreover, she had difficulty locating in which exhibition she had encountered this magical image and where she had seen it again several times. Since this discovery, she willingly entered a photography exhibition, only for the image, for the impression of sharing something with the author, without knowing her and without wanting to know her. Her selective memory now stored images, of all categories, provided that her heart could be moved. Why my optimism? Because this case repeats itself more and more often when we exhibit or visit the artwork of a colleague, as long as we are not suffering from acute navel-gazing, as the poet said!
The photographic image is very similar to very great wines. It requires time to express its complexity, it also requires time for the reader to learn to perceive its quintessence. The photographer, like the brilliant winemaker, will find his way in his capacity to renew his know-how by bringing a creative evolution, day after day, to his artworks.
Another source of my confidence is the rebalancing of the technological range that prevails for the production of a photographic image. Shooting and analog photography are regaining the place they should never have lost. Which does not detract from the interest in digital photography and its own potential when mastered. Kodak is back in the circuit with the launch of four of its legendary films. Pentax is innovating with a new camera in a surprising French format. Fuji and its ilk are modernizing their film cameras. Leica is happily surfing the snobbery of it is never expensive enough to show off in society. Do all these leading names in photographic images think that they will find the phenomenal sums they lost with digital with film? In any case, distributors are reinstalling departments (physical or virtual) dedicated to the necessary equipment, supplies, and products. For example, in its stores, FNAC is installing a specialized analog section in its “photo” area, just as it had reintroduced a “vinyl” section in the middle of its music sections. Alternative ecological treatments are sources of exchanges and experiments on both sides of the ocean, and are even explained in this magazine.
Finally, all the major photographic laboratories are desperately looking for printers to install in front of an enlarger. The great old ones, known to all, have left. Our photographic schools were more concerned with instilling fashionable delusions and creative injunctions to students who were not very rebellious. Why teach them all these essential technical bases to consider improving themselves with old ones and becoming, themselves, essential “printers”. This observation of losses of heritage knowledge that weakens the entire European industry is becoming, today, flagrant for photography. This return of demand is welcome.
Only good things in sight, keep a close eye on the foot of the Christmas tree or the fireplace floor and happy holidays to all, Staying warm of course.
Thierry Maindrault, December 13, 2024
your comments about this chronicle and its photography are always welcome at [email protected]
