A beautiful tribute to Denis Brihat from Didier Brousse of the Galerie Camera Obscura.
Denis Brihat passed away on December 3rd, 2024.
With him, a whole chapter in the history of French photography has passed away. Brihat was indeed a major player in this history, first through his work, but also through his commitment to the recognition of photography, and finally through the teaching he provided over the years in his studio, training a generation of photographers.
Born in Paris in September 1928, he moved to Bonnieux, the Lubéron region, in 1958, where he started a family, built his house, and cultivated a garden from which he drew inspiration and models for his photographs.
Brihat lived his passion for photography like a painter, wishing to create works for the wall, for the enjoyment of the viewer. In 1965, he exhibited his “photographic paintings” at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, unique prints: a single copy made from the negative, the framing and format chosen to best convey the feeling of each image, from the miniature to the two-meter-high blade of grass.
Then, from 1968, came the work on color thanks to unprecedented research on toning. Brihat abandoned the concept, too strict for his taste (and basically not very photographic), of the single print. But, for each negative chosen, the work is printed in one go, in one day, to maintain the consistency of the very complex treatment that he carries out in the laboratory.
This is how his work was built, over some fifty years, with such rare coherence that, for certain subjects that he loved and pursued for several decades, black tulips for example, a print from the seventies is indistinguishable, in its form, from the very last one he produced, in 2012.
Denis Brihat already summed up the essence of his work in a text from the 1960s:
“My subject: nature. I live in it at heart, and in great solitude. Along with music, it provides me with a foundation for my life, a structure. I listen to a lot of music, especially Bach.
Looking back over the years, I realize that, even though I have explored many subjects, there is an obvious, recurring link: it is a systematic study of the forms, structures, and architecture of nature.” – Denis Brihat
Didier Brousse
Brihat : Hommage à Denis Brihat (1928-2024)
Until May 31, 2025
Galerie Camera Obscura
268, boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris
www.galeriecameraobscura.fr
