“For the last fifteen years I’ve been sifting through the boxes of postcards from the 50s to the 70s of seaside in flea markets and second hand shops. This collection has its echo in my work on abandoned seaside resorts in winter and my fascination for the film by Jacques Tati «Mr Hulot’s Holiday.»
What interests me in these pictures is that they are both souvenirs of a place – in the «I was there» sense – and also give out a message connected with leasure and holidays in a banal photographic process with no other purpose than to give a «positive and sunny» image of a moment of happiness in a given place.
When you look a little closer, the photographs are a real source of information. Each has its own identity and records a certain period in time.
The paradox lies in the fact that these postcards were printed by the thousands and were seen by hundreds of passers- by on the swiveling postcard stands of souvenir sellers without their paying any real attention.These images fulfilled a purpose, to get people to write.
The fact that today one looks closer at these images and takes them out of context by framing them like a photographic print, by blowing up a certain detail to make a large format print, by repeating the same viewpoint or the same scene taken at different times, allows us to create a powerful language out of what seemed everyday, banal. It is this plastic approach which allows us to look at these old time-worn images in a new way, images which remain ever-present in our subconscious.”
Patrick Tourneboeuf
FESTIVAL
Photomed 2014
Until June 15th, 2014
83110 Sanary-sur-Mer
France
http://www.festivalphotomed.com
