The 15th edition of the Festival de Photographie(s) MAP Toulouse will be held from September 12 to 29, 2024 in 9 locations in the heart of the emblematic Saint-Cyprien district. This now unmissable event for lovers of visual art and culture promises a unique immersion in the world of contemporary photography, with free exhibitions by renowned and emerging artists, fun and family activities, meetings with professionals and moments of exchange around this passion which unites and unites. Visitors are warned, these 18 days of festival will be the opportunity to discover or rediscover works and places, to admire Toulouse from a new angle and to participate in workshops, screenings or even conferences which will highlight the multiple facets of this captivating art.
Robert Doisneau is exhibited there.
Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) is one of the most popular post-war French photographers. Born in Gentilly, he studied graphic arts at the Estienne school and obtained his diploma as an engraver and lithographer in 1929. A year later, he joined the Atelier Ullmann as an advertising photographer.
In 1932, he sold his first photographic report, which was broadcast in the Excelsior.
In 1934, the automobile manufacturer Renault, of Boulogne-Billancourt, hired him as an industrial photographer. He remained with Renault until 1939. Robert Doisneau then became an independent photographer.
After the war, he produced numerous photographic reports on very diverse subjects: Parisian news, popular Paris, subjects on the provinces or abroad (USSR, United States, Yugoslavia, among others). Some of his reports will appear in magazines such as Life, Paris Match, Réalités, Point de Vue, Regards, etc.
Factory fumes by Robert Doisneau
In reality, I gave in to the easy option. It is more pleasant to collect flowers than to make pâtés with clinker. Lack of conviction, lack of will because I would have needed will to force the barriers behind which we hide the living conditions of workers. I understand clearly: everyone works or almost, but I think of the shirt-wetters, of those who are near the fire or who go to the coal, and of all those who are possessed by the pride of doing a dangerous job. . If, instead of giving in, I had put my patience at the service of this cause, today I could be inflated with importance.
I probably had technical training better than most of my colleagues, which makes my situation worse. I cannot hide behind ignorance because, after my Renault experience, I often had the opportunity to return to these places where men serve their sentences. Sometimes a day or two, rarely a whole week, each time like a visitor pressed by deadlines, a spectator watching the cyclists pass from the Saint-Nazaire construction sites, who are ushered into the dormitories of the SNCF depots, who being expelled from the fortresses of canned peas or, a little further up in France, who saw the settlements and the CRS buses passing the buses transporting the miners in the night. And what else… the women of the spinning mills and the sticky entrails of the chemical factories, not great for your health.
Text by Robert Doisneau from « L’imparfait de l’objectif »
Festival de Photographie(s) MAP Toulouse
from September 12 to 29, 2024
https://map-photo.fr/
