In front of a changing landscape, Raymond Depardon, Lewis Baltz, Elina Brotherus and a hundred other photographers try to draw a new “portrait” of France. It is the story of this photographic adventure started in the early 21th century that the BnF invites visitors to discover.
What is a landscape? It is a physical reality “plus” a point of view. The 400 photographs presented, providing a vision of the French landscape during the last 40 years, perfectly answer these arithmetic reflections. Actually, at the end of the Trente Glorieuses (Thirty-year boom period after World War II), the face of France changed. The country became a “territory” to develop. In parallel, several photographers – unknown so far or already famous – were sent across the country to bear witness to this transformation. As a result, our vision of the French landscape has changed according to these major missions whether state-funded or, more frequently today, supported by artists groups such as “France territoire liquide”.
The picturesque formerly loved by a majority of people has been replaced by another kind of aesthetics: poetry of banal things, praise of everyday life, natural elements crossed by artefacts. Far from creating figures of disenchantment, these images, wide-open to fiction, offer the opportunity to re-enchant reality.
Exhibition realized with the support of Picto Foundation, le fonds de dotation des laboratoires Picto.
In the framework of Paris Photo.
Information
Bibliothèque nationale de France (site François-Mitterrand)
Quai François Mauriac, 75706 Paris, France
October 24, 2017 to February 04, 2018
