So distant already, and yet so close in our memories, before slipping into the oblivion of time. The 1970s were the last great industrial transformation in Europe, above all in heavy industry. Then financial mergers systematically relocated the great industrial sites whenever technological changes were planned.
The steel and glass industries were hit head-on by the energy crisis just as they were beginning a genuine industrial transformation. For reasons lacking in vision, the Western economic world purely and simply rid itself of entire sectors of industry, condemning tens of thousands of workers to oblivion.
We owe this evolution to two factors: the first, initially, was the cost of labor in Europe (with France in the lead). Later, once automation had taken hold, the second fatal blow came from ecology, with its rejection (certainly a highly marketable one) of pollution and global warming. The paradox is that these transfers, to countries then discovering intensive industrial development, change strictly nothing at the planetary level: pollution and warming logically continue to make themselves at home.
What passes into history is the transformation of working methods in these industrial worlds that handle fire. A kind of industrial craftsmanship, in which human intervention played a crucial role, saw its workshops, inherited from the previous century, replaced by rationalized factories geared toward mass production.
It was during this technological turning point that Catherine Gardone, then a young photographer, had the opportunity to enter this closed world closed if only because of safety.
While a few emblematic photographs of this period still exist, Catherine’s images have the distinction, beyond their descriptive purpose, of immersing us in this world of exhausting labor. These activities were housed in an outdated environment doomed to self-destruction. These places, superbly photogenic, were captured by Catherine Gardone with light used sparingly, cast in the leading role. The violent contrasts preserve the essential, with a subtle access to detail in each photograph. Images for the memory of the unimaginable, and with intimate beauty and sensuality.
The prints of these beautiful images are entirely analogue in their making. We may regret that the number of each of these images is not limited according to the rules governing photographic prints. This choice regarding the prints considerably limits their museum value, even if the author’s decision takes nothing away from their ethnological value.
Thierry Maindrault
PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
“l’usage du feu” by Catherine Gardonne
Galerie John Doe Books
69 route d’Apt
Coustellet
84660 Maubec [France]
from July 23 to September 6, 2026
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm
Sunday, 9 am to 1 pm
