The Bonne Espérance gallery based in Paris is one of the most specialized in contemporary artistic creations and works from Southern Africa.
In the field of photography, the gallery is the custodian of a large part of the photographic work of the great German photographer Jurgen Schadeberg. The major part of his activity was in South Africa and was devoted to the important evolution of this society over half a century. His natural portraits of characters such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Trevor Huddleston and Govan Mbeki, or the artists Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Thandi Klaasen or Kippie Moeketsi, are precious testimonies known throughout the world.
The gallery owns “San Trance”, a unique reportage in the country where “the gods have fallen on their heads”. He was there well before the making of the exceptional film by Jamie Uys. It was in 1959 that Jurgen succeeded in entering and staying in a San community (the last hunter-gatherer society in South Africa, established 44,000 years ago).
The set presented by Scott Paul Billy, director of the gallery, offers us a series of images that go far beyond documentary or ethnographic photographs. We are integrated, we dialogue with the subjects by going beyond what they are to receive what they say.
Thierry Maindrault
Galerie Bonne Espérance Gallery
3 rue Notre Dame de Bonne Nouvelle
75002 PARIS
téléphone + 33 6 72 91 87 85
https://bonne-esperance-gallery.com
