Book or gallery walls? Such is the question photographers ask themselves when they are preparing to show their work. Many of them opt for both but do not express themselves in the same way through the printed page as they do through the original prints hanging on the walls of an exhibition. The first path, an individual and intimate experience, is eternal and can travel throughout the world and time; the second, a physical and collective experience, is ephemeral and limited to a space. In fact, photographers need both to showcase their work.
This exhibition at the Musée Le Locle in Switzerland, titled Photobook : le culte du livre, is interested in the photo-book, a term used in specialists’ vocabulary since the famous works of Gerry Badger and Martin Parr. How does one describe this object that was born with photography, following its history and evolution? Is it a book composed only of photographs? Is text necessarily reduced to a caption role, or can it equally co-exist? Does the photo-book necessarily refer to an artistic approach to photography, or can it include all types (documentary, medical, culinary, etc.)? The definition of a book of photographs is as vast as the medium itself. Whether it be created in an artisanal manner or the product of the latest technology, a book is also the result of decisions which do not change with time: choice of visual and textual content, cover, format, layout, paper, binding, print type, etc. The exhibition is offering a look at this object coveted by all photographers and reveals some shelves from the personal libraries of sixteen artists (Lee Friedlander, William Klein, Ralph Gibson, Duane Michals, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Broomberg & Chanarin, Paul Graham, Viviane Sassen, Mishka Henner, etc.). None of them would dispute Mallarmé: “Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.” Since its birth, photography has also chosen to follow that path!
Nathalie Herschdorfer
Nathalie Herschdorfer is an author and photography historian. After Paris, New York, Madrid, Düsseldorf, and Moscow, the MBAL is gathering the thirty-five selected works for Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, a competition organized annually by the Aperture Foundation and Paris Photo.
Photobook : le culte du livre
From June 18 through October 15, 2017
Musée des beaux-arts Le Locle
Marie-Anne-Calame 6
2400 Le Locle
Switzerland
