Galerie Vallois offers a long journey through the prism of the humanist gaze of photographer and ethnographer Pierre Verger (1902-1996) and Father Gabriel Clamens (1907-1964). In its two exhibition spaces located at 35 and 41 rue de Seine, the Galerie Vallois brings together the images of two erudite and freedom-loving men who have so aptly captured the richness of the human soul and the beauty of a world that has now partly disappeared.
Pierre Verger (1902 Paris, 1996 Salvador de Bahia)
Ethnologist and photographer, Pierre Verger moved freely throughout his life, guided by the curiosity of others and the whispers of the world. For fifty years, he devoted his research to the black cultures of Brazil and Africa, to the transoceanic world of orixas and voduns. From his countless encounters and travels, he has taken more than 63,000 photographs preserved by the Foundation he created in Salvador de Bahia. In partnership with the Pierre Verger Foundation, the Galerie Vallois has chosen to exhibit thirty images taken between 1933 and 1973, since his first trip to French Polynesia, through his wanderings in China, Mexico, Peru, his discovery of Brazil. and Salvador de Bahia as well as his photographic research carried out in Benin in the 1950s.
Gabriel Clamens (1907-1964)
Born on November 28, 1907 in the Gard (South of France), Gabriel Clamens joined the Society of African Missions at the age of 18 and spent the majority of his life on the African continent where he alternately held the position of professor of the Holy Scriptures at Ouidah (Benin) and parish priest in Allada. After a short return to France, he joined the parish of Cotonou and then left for the Ivory Coast. There, he developped a deep interest in the local populations, in particular for the Senufo people. Father Clamens was filled with a sincere curiosity for the populations he met. Among the documents of the priest that have come down to us, we found a small leather notebook which includes the priest’s Dahomey portfolio. It is these photographs, taken between 1940 and 1945 in several villages of the kingdom during the priest’s first mission in Africa that the exhibition offers to discover.
Les voyages photographiques de Pierre Verger (1902-1996) et du Père Gabriel Clamens (1907-1964)
From October 22 to November 28, 2020,
Galerie Vallois
35 – 41, rue de Seine – 75006 PARIS
Ouvert du mardi au samedi
De 11h à 19h
