For his first book, published by Neus, Baptiste Giroudon examines the question of democracy. This minimalist work is a departure from Giroudon’s other work. Study on the Nature of a Variable Geometry is an intimate work that breaks with the traditional iconography of photojournalism while still relying on its search for meaning.
I’ve worked with Baptiste Giroudon for over ten years, week after week, subject after subject, through victory and doubt. I could be forgiven for thinking that I knew his work, but this book came as a shock to me.
“Trivial”—the word doesn’t have to be pejorative. In documentary photography, it’s essential. When a detail echoes a larger context, the photographer’s job is to discern, sublimate and associate. This is the work that lets a photographer conveys his or her message. And this is the process that Baptiste admirably undertakes to investigate democracy, one of the foundational values of our society which we still struggle to uphold.
In these 30 photographs, including several masterpieces, Baptiste presents us with the problem of History and memory, liberalism and the exportation of our model, protectionism and the armed struggle. By distilling this message down to its essence, Baptiste delivers here the best work he’s ever done. It’s a work that can be read in so many different ways, the first, personally, was a calling into question.
They say the devil is in the details. Baptiste has deciphered the devils in democracy. Remember, the name Lucifer means “bringer of light.”
“Study on the Nature of a variable geometry” by Baptiste Giroudon, available from éditions Neus.
Available for order here and in the bookstores of Yvon Lambert and Artazart in Paris, and the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. More information on the book’s Facebook page
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