The book Images à Charge – La construction de la preuve par l’image, seems to strike a balance between a “scientific” number and the quality of an artist’s book. How did you arrive at this complex dosage?
Xavier Barral: Over time, it’s about finding a relationship, a balance between text and image, then finding the right alchemy of format, paper and ink to showcase them. That’s what I’m looking for in all my books, ones that serve the original archives while shedding light on contemporary knowledge. The material of the image in the book helps understand the latter. For example, in the Martin Gusinde book L’esprit des hommes de la Terre de Feu (2015), the archives were all the same and I was looking for a photographic material dating to the beginning of the century. For Evolution (2007), the power of the black backgrounds added to the interpretation of the skeletons. With Images à Charge, I tried out many things on paper until I arrived at the result that fit these archives perfectly.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil de la Phtoographie.
EXHIBITION
Images à charge, la construction de la preuve par l’image
From June 4th to August 30, 2015
Le BAL
6, impasse de la Défense
75018 Paris
France
http://www.le-bal.fr
Exhibition is producted by Picto Lab.
BOOK
Images à charge, la construction de la preuve par l’image
Éditions Xavier Barral & Le BAL
22 x 28,5 cm
240 pages
280 photographs B&W
45€
http://exb.fr
