Geneva by Paul Rousteau
Through Paul Rousteau’s lens, the city at the western end of Lake Geneva’s vast
blue expanse takes on warmer colours. The beige-hued building facades, the tranquility of the Bains des Pâquis pier, the Rhône and the Alps appear in a new light. A gentleness reminiscent of the Mediterranean dolce vita floats over the city’s harbour. A group of nude and melancholy female bathers – in this case his models are statues – rounds out the scene.
Recalling his teenage love for a girl from Geneva, Rousteau revisits the places where his passion burned. He loses and finds himself anew. His random strolls around the city lead him down narrow streets to discover intimate nooks and crannies. This meditative and carnal quest gives him entrée to a sensual and voluptuous Geneva. We thus come to understand why Alexandre Dumas compared the city to a languid “odalisque”.
Fashion Eye Geneva Bok Signing
The Ofr. library & LOUIS VUITTON editions receive Paul Rousteau for the dedication of the book Fashion Eye Geneva, Wednesday, February 20, 2019 between 6pm and 9pm at the Ofr. library.
Paul Rousteau (born in 1985)
Paul Rousteau’s vivid style invites us to escape through the mirror of appearances. Partial to bright and soft colours, enamoured of impressionist and fauvist modes, this Paris-based photographer often describes himself as an idle painter, with a preference for artists who steer clear of the real. His photographs, imbued with an immaterial quality – if such a thing can be said to exist – flirt with the intangible. Often blurry and overexposed, they catch our eye with their luminous washes of colour.
Rousteau studied at the Vevey School of Photography in Switzerland. Ranging from fine arts to fashion, still life to travel, his work has been featured in numerous magazines, including The New Yorker. His roster of clients includes brands such as agnès b. and Diptyque. In 2016, his work was shown at the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival and at the galerie du jour agnès b. during Paris Photo.
Louis Vuitton Fashion Eye
Synonymous with the art of travel since 1854, Louis Vuitton is adding another five titles to its fashion eye series of photography books. This autumn, five photographers invite us to explore new horizons: Cretto di Burri by Oliviero Toscani, Iran by Harley Weir, Geneva by Paul Rousteau, Silk Road by Kishin Shinoyama and Bali by Quentin de Briey. As with the earlier volumes in the series, each book evokes a city, a region or a country, seen through the eyes of a fashion photographer.
In quite a different register from his provocative advertising campaigns, the controversial Oliviero Toscani revisits Alberto Burri’s monumental land art masterpiece, which covers part of the ruins of Gibellina, in Sicily. This magnificent installation is transfigured by Toscani into a sweeping photographic experience unlike any other before. London native Harley Weir takes a breather from her glossy fashion images to magnificently cast her gaze on the present and past of a Persia tinged by the realities of our time. On the other side of the spectrum, shimmering light inspires the thirtysomething French photographer Paul Rousteau to capture the cerulean spirit of Lake Geneva. Famous for his female nudes, Kishin Shinoyama enjoys the supreme luxury of taking his time. In the 1980s, he travelled the Silk Road in search of new vistas and encounters, a remarkable journey hanging on the thinnest of threads stretched between civilizations. Away from the opulent resort hotels and increasing throngs of tourists, Quentin de Briey reveals the contours of daily life in Bali and its neighbouring islands.
Title after title, a broad compendium of perspectives emerges, one that shifts with the destinations, including urban panoramas and natural landscapes, scenes of local life, and more contemplative work, in both colour and black and white. Each Fashion Eye title features an extensive selection of large-format photographs, together with biographical information and an interview with the photographer or a critical essay. Fashion Eye creates an unprecedented dialogue between emerging talents, seasoned photographers and fashion photography legends. It confronts contemporary creation with little-known archival treasures to create a collection of invaluable reference works, as much in terms of its approach as its aesthetics.
As the most recent addition to the Editions Louis Vuitton line-up, Fashion Eye brings a new dimension to the range of travel books conceived by the luxury house. After the City Guides offering a refreshing and offbeat perspective on familiar and less familiar metropolises, and the Travel Books rekindling the idea of the artist’s notebook, with this third collection travel photography indirectly showcases fashion, thanks to the talents of photographers most often noted for their work in this field. Whether established or up-and-coming, contemporary stars or leading figures of decades past, they all infuse their images of great cities, faraway places or dream destinations with their unique vision.
Information
Librairie Ofr.
20, rue Dupetit-Thouars 75003 Paris, France
February 20, 2019 to February 20, 2019
