A Franco-Swiss photographer, author of nearly thirty books, all self-published by Blurb, including 40 Years of Photography, Jean-Marc Martin du Theil has worked in the theatre with Marcel Maréchal, Roger Planchon and Patrice Chéreau. The photographer Claude Bricage made him buy his first Leica. From 1972 to 1992, he joined Marc Enguérand’s photo agency in Paris specialised in performing arts. In 2013, his archives were received by the Department of Performing Arts of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF).
His books and photographic notebooks present reportages in Asia (from India to Japan, exhibition in 2013 in Geneva with prints by Thomas Consani), on the “memories of the Shoah” (Berlin, Krakow and Auschwitz), the Haute-Savoie (the construction site of Geneva’s street which links Annemasse to the Geneva, financial center). And series of portraits (of writers, in particular the Swiss Maurice Chappaz whom he exhibited at the Gianadda Foundation, Martigny), views of landscapes, gardens. His book 40 Years of Photography brings together the most significant photographs of his career.
He feels close to humanist photography. “I looked at people, landscapes and events with the memory of the paintings and photographs of the great masters,” he emphasises, refusing to accept the societal and identity-based injunctions of the moment. He quotes Nicolas Bouvier, a traveller and writer from Geneva, who favours photographs that “are purely constant, with no pros or cons, no pedagogy or political hype”.
Jean-Marc Martin du Theil has lived in Geneva since 1987. All his books are “visible” on his website.
Jean-Marc Martin du Theil : 40 ans de photographies
Edition Blurb, 2019
www.jmmartindutheil.com
