Signatures is neither an agency nor a collective. It’s a “House of photographers,” according to its two founders, Frédérique Founès and Marie Karsenty. Sixty photographers have found it to be the perfect refuge since it opened five years ago. Light shines through the high windows of their offices in Châtelet, one of the most lively and cosmopolitan neighborhoods of the French capital. From here the two women work towards the common goal of documenting contemporary society.
Signatures is celebrating its fifth anniversary. The path to where they are today has been tortuous. They had to fight to get their structure on its feet and revolutionize a struggling profession. They always place the human being at the heart of their mission, so Signatures is celebrating its anniversary with the exhibition Oeil pour Oeil (Eye for an Eye), featuring the work of eight artists. We sat down with these two extraordinary women.
L’Oeil de la Photographie: Five years ago you created Signatures, “a house of photographers.” How did the project come together?
Frédérique Founès & Marie Karsenty: We had worked together in the same agency for seven years. When it went bankrupt, a victim of the crisis which was already having an effect on our profession, we wanted to keep working with photographers by inventing a new model, something between an agency and a collective. The structure allows for fewer expenses and a greater proximity to the artists. We both come from very different—and therefore complementary—backgrounds with different experiences and skills sets.
ODP: How has the project evolved since its creation?
FF & MK : We started out by collaborating with 40 photographers. Every year we open our doors to new artists chosen by members of the agency during an annual meeting. Since the inception of the company, we have diversified the approaches to photography at Signatures by accepting documentary photographers, portraitists and illustrators, all while staying true to our goal of documenting contemporary society.
We’ve also expanded our field of activity. In addition to the dissemination of archives and collaboration with the media and publishing, we offer a catalogue of exhibitions which can be rented, and work alongside companies, advertising agencies and institutions. We’re also expanding our sales of photographs. A few of our photographers have entered public and private collections with our help. We are also involved with various publishing and exhibition projects led by our photographers. We help raise funds or offer guidance for the artistic direction and layout.
ODP: Signatures represents 59 photographers. What are you looking for in a photographer?
FF & MK : They have to have their own identity, and their work has to fit with our editorial outlook, which remains about society. That doesn’t preclude a diversity of approaches and experiences. In Oeil pour Oeil, for example, Bernard Plossu, who needs no introduction, appears alongside Michel Nguie, a young photographer from Bordeaux, and a report by Bruno Amsellem is compared with the visual arts approach of Tina Merandon, and so on.
ODP: The exhibition Oeil pour Oeil opens next Tuesday. What do you hope to express with this exhibition? And why these eight photographers?
FF & MK : The exhibition is a dialogue between different works of photography and spaces dedicated to the remarkable books published by Signatures over the past five years. The layout combines several reports and series, with all that a group show requires, setting up a confrontation and dialogue between the photographers. In each piece at the Hôtel de Sauroy, the artists intersect.
With this exhibition, we’re offering visitors a vision of society through eight fundamental issues: fear, the unfamiliar, anger, death, sex, intimacy, borderlines and climate change. The conclusions are not pessimistic. Every photographic approach is dual. For example, Johann Rousselot’s work on young revolutionaries: over the months, most of them saw their revolution forfeited, but their energy remains the same and a step forward was taken. When Bruno Amsellem decided to follow Tarzan Covaci’s back-and-forth between Romania and France, he’s not taking a stance on “the Roma question,” but telling the story of poverty in Europe.
ODP: Why the title Oeil pour oeil (Eye for an Eye)?
FF & MK : There’s a symbolic dimension to the title, with “wrongs” and “punishment” we find Raphaël Helle’s work on climate change, or Éric Dexheimer’s series Primal, as in other subjects explored in the exhibition. And of course, the pleasure of putting the photographers into dialogue with each other. The exhibition will also feature several public events organized with the Musée Français de la Photographie and the magazine Fisheye, also discussions with historians, scholars and photographers from different backgrounds.
L’Oeil de la Photographie is a proud partner of this event. Every week we’ll be sharing portfolios from all eight photographers in the exhibition.
EXHIBITION
Œil pour œil
Regards croisés, cinq ans de Signatures
May 17 – June 14, 2014
Opening on May 20th from 6pm to 9.30pm
Hôtel de Sauroy
58, rue Charlot
75003 Paris
France
Photographers on view : Bernard Plossu (Intime), Bruno Amsellem (Etranger), Xavier Lambours (Sexe), Raphaël Helle (Dérèglement climatique), Johann Rousselot (Colères), Tina Merandon (Peurs), Eric Dexheimer (Mort) and Michel Nguie (Borderline)
RENCONTRE
« Tous photographes ? La notion d’auteur »
With André Gunthert, Frédéric Delangle and Tina Merandon.
May 18th at 5.30 pm
Hôtel de Sauroy
58, rue Charlot
75003 Paris
France
