Tribute to the Düsseldorf school with a 50mm
Somehow, I like to be where you don’t expect me. It’s not because I like “poetic” photography à la Boubat or Frank that I don’t like, or don’t know how to appreciate something else.
In fact, as early as the early 1970s, I had photographed with a 50mm lens a series on cinemas in the American West, and all the signs or symbols of the myth of cowboys and Indians *.
So one day I consciously found myself in Düsseldorf, wanting, in my own way, to pay homage to this famous school of photography. What to do ? I’m not using a large format camera! But with the rigor of a 50mm in which I firmly believe, it was possible to photograph this contemporary modern city as it is. With a 50 mm, no distortion or effect and thus, I was able to work with this Düsseldorf approach.
Walking in town, quite simply, and also a little by car when arriving and leaving, points of view always very true, I photographed the avenues, the buildings, the angles of meetings especially, just to document the city. And given the choice of 24 x 36, on my return I decided to keep the small postcard format and especially not to do “large formats”: no question of aping. The small formats allowed me to keep the spirit of this school.
Knowing the passion that Régis Durand has always nourished for her, with whom I have enjoyed creating projects for years, I asked him if he would be interested in writing a great text on this school that he has. long contributed to make known in France.
May this book be at the same time a celebration of our common passion for photography and how it contributes to the understanding of what surrounds us and where we live.
Bernard Plossu
* – American West movie theaters, textes de Stuart Alexander et J. M. Tomas Llavador, Editorial Isee Books, Valencia, Espagne.
– De Buffalo Bill à Automo Bill, texte de David Le Breton, Mediapop éditions, Mulhouse, France.
– La Nature prisonnière, textes de François Carrassan et Rudy Ricciotti, éditions Les Cahiers de l’égaré, France.
DÜSSELDORF
Bernard Plossu / Régis Durand
Filigranes Éditions
Format245 x 187
French
Hardcover
41 two-tone photographs
48 pages
ISBN : 978-2-35046-528-9
