Introduction
Michèle Chomette is an art gallery founded in 1985. It specializes in 19th and 20th century photography as well as the latest creations by contemporary artists. Its curatorial approach (there are 5 to 6 exhibitions a year) is mostly dedicated to single artist shows, but the gallery also organizes exhibitions around a central theme (accompanied by analytical texts).
What is your point of view on the financial side of the photographic market today?
What is there to say after 27 years on behalf of a gallery in the shadow of the Centre Pompidou? As we say in French, the sheep is still tied to the same peg: we stubbornly adhere to the same values.
From wherever and whenever it comes, as long as a work of photography is considered a work of art, it is necessarily linked to a visual plan, be it conceptual, documentary or imaginary. Reduced to pure imagery, photography shares little of my concerns. I have a certain indifference to the value of its testimony even if I still respect it. Images intended for the sole purpose of decorating walls remain a mystery to me.
But where there are sheep there are wolves. And if our old sheepish habits hobbled our progression with their ignorance and condescension, the wolves presented a new and present danger. The rigor and knowledge that defined the beginnings of the photography market gave way to tastes that were less selective and more impulsive, and to big businesses that privilege the production of images over their artistic value.
Photography, or rather any given photograph, has become a commodity for quick consumption, an object for financial speculation rather than artistic speculation. The market gorged on a confusion of genres and values that horrified the collectors and theorists who gave birth to the same market thirty years before in an atmosphere of wisdom, patience, culture, authenticity and shared love of the image. But as this is hardly the place to elaborate the evolution of the changes of status, context and ethics that photography has suffered over the years, nor the evolution of how it has been seen, so I’ll stop where I am.
Extracts from a humorous speech by Michèle Chomette delivered during the conference.
Artists exhibited
Pierre Jahan et Robert F. Hammerstiel
Galerie Michèle Chomette
Stand : D47
24, rue Beaubourg
75003, Paris France
T. +33 (0)1 42 78 05 62
F. +33 (0)1 42 72 62 05
