“The book dedicated to Denis Brihat by Editions Le bec en l’air is the ideal form of consecration for the quality of the printing and the” secrets “given by a central figure of analog photography in France, waiting for the day of a retrospective exhibition. ”
Michel Poivert
Denis Brihat, photographer lives in Provence and is internationally celebrated, he has dedicated immense works to a unique obsession: Nature. It is an intense and sensitive look, a mixture of sensuality, rigor and daily practice. He explored as few others the immense chromatic possibilities of the chemistry related to analog photography, with the will to give back the the colors of Nature in the form of “photographic tables” revealing the invisible world of poppies, onions, pears or lemons …
With more than 140 photographs taken since the end of the 1960s and a body of text from unpublished interviews with the photographer about his practice, this book highlights the unique approach of this great artist.
“I have often said and written that photography has been my university; it allowed me to earn a living, to meet many people, to travel and to go ahead, to open myself to the world and at the same time to find myself. Outside of the job itself, I had a lot of fun teaching. I thought it might be interesting to leave a trace of my experiences, of my researches, of my skills, of all that I have accumulated during the seventy years that I lived while carrying out this activity with passion and also, I believe, with very high requirement. Perhaps this book is basically a kind of thanks, a salute to this journey. ”
Denis Brihat
Denis Brihat was born in 1928 in Paris. After obtaining the Niépce prize in 1957, he moved in 1958 in Provence to devote himself to his research on the theme of Nature in the form of “photographic paintings”. He explores the chromatic possibilities of numerous chemical modifications related to silver photography and is developing a palette of color for which only he has the secret: turning to gold, copper or selenium, sulphuration, engraving of the gelatin and redevelopment …
His work is exhibited and collected around the world (Victoria and Albert Museum, MoMA, BnF …). Friend of Jean-Pierre Sudre, Robert Doisneau, Jean Dieuzaide, he helped found the Rencontres d’Arles. He is represented in France by the Camera Obscura Gallery (Paris) and in the United States by the Nayla Alexander Gallery (New York).
Denis Brihat – Les Métamorphoses de l’Argentique
Le bec en l’air editions
24 x 31 cm, 240 pages, hard cover,
140 color photographs
ISBN 978-2-36744-122-1 – 55 €
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