The Dieuzaide and Spain
By Jean-Jacques Ader
Claude Nougaro warned us: in Toulouse, Spain likes to come and raise its horn. The natural border formed by the nearby Pyrenees has long attracted hikers and photographers.
At the beginning of the 1950s, Jean Dieuzaide – who founded Le Château d’eau twenty years later – took advantage of an order from Arthaud editions and spent time in Spain. He would return there often, producing several books – Southern Spain, Northern Spain, Eastern Spain – until his son Michel was old enough to accompany him and was seduced in turn, to later develop his own projects.
The exhibition at the Galerie Ombres Blanches, as well as the foreign bookstore section, brings together not only two perspectives but two very different eras. Franco’s Spain for Jean, who did not come there as a photojournalist, but focused on documenting scenes of life, human encounters, luminous landscapes and villages with austere buildings. Michel, for his part, renews our view of a country now living in democracy, and which we nevertheless recognize, despite the past years; more graphic angles, but caressing the same light and cherishing the composed and poetic framings. They both avoid clichés by giving us back this warm country with obvious black & white photogenicity.
A separate booklet, for the occasion, brings together most of the images of the father and son, and is accompanied by texts and poetry by Spanish authors; Miguel de Unamuno, Antonio Machado, Luis Cernuda, Federico García Lorca etc… Another event, during the closing of the exhibition on October 27, the screening of Michel Dieuzaide’s film “Le chemin du Rocio”, dedicated to this lost village in Andalusia, whose pilgrimage allows, during a hike, to rediscover both fervor and belief in the opportunity to celebrate.
Jean-Jacques Ader
Exhibition “The Spain of the Dieuzaides” at the Galerie Ombres Blanches in Toulouse from September 20 to October 28, 2023 – opening reception and screening of the film Le chemin de Rocio by Michel Dieuzaide on October 27
Galerie Ombres Blanches
50 Rue Léon Gambetta
31000 Toulouse
www.ombres-blanches.fr
