The 12th book of photographs by Jean Mounicq is in the bookshops, “Portraits”… (Editions de Juillet). Jean Mounicq is of an unfailing rigor and an absolute eye, the ability to see the essential and to show it as obvious. Here is an excerpt from the text by Françoise Denoyelle.
Jean Mounicq, the quest for human adventure around the world.
The attention always on the alert, the eye is assured, the framing of the image almost innate, the selection of the elements of the decor drastic. Considering the stage, its architecture, its openings, its constraints and its opportunities. Setting the character in the space, getting him in the soothing seat of a chosen countenance or letting him go about his outbursts of the moment. Measuring with the eye the light transparency, the backlighting, the shadow areas and the reflections. Most often, trying to control the lighting. Considering the whole, identifying the objects, removing the intruder, banishing the futile, removing the pretty, scrutinizing the relevant, choosing the remarkable. Striking the right balance between the plans. In the flood of words, remarks and questions from the journalist, replies and objections from the writer, jokes from the painter, invitation to take up the tool of the sculptor, the guard is down. A relaxation of tensions, a distraction of the body, a reflux of attention, a breach in the effort to appear. The break is off. Then a candor of being is revealed, an offered presence, a preponderant natural authority, an existence lost in its secrets, a poorly concealed cunning, an indifference to notoriety, a solemnity all in restraint. The suspended sadness of a youth far from its moorings is outlined on the edge of the lips. The fragility of a look without allies is revealed. A burst of laughter and life forces are displayed. A joke arises in the joy of pleasing. The seigniorial ease of the visionary asserts itself, which he imposes with the gesture of his finger.
Francoise Denoyelle
Jean Mounicq : Portraits
Editions de Juillet, Chantepie, oct. 2022
172 pages
± 81 photographs
Cardboard and canvas cover
Size: 200 x 260mm
ISBN : 978-2-36510-109-7
€40.00
https://www.editionsdejuillet.com/products/jean-mounicq-portraits
