Meeting with Michel Janneau, secretary general of the Louis Roederer Foundation. The foundation has been a partner for photography exhibitions at the National Library of France (BnF) for several years now, and for its research fellowship, also with the Palais de Tokyo since its reopening in 2012. The Louis Roederer Foundation joined Planche(s) Contact, and accompanies the city of Deauville and the Planche(s) Contact jury in the discovery of new talents and the assignments of renowned photographers.
The Eye of Photography: The Louis Roederer Foundation has accompanied photography for several years, notably with its endowment in collaboration with the BnF.
How does your support for the city of Deauville/Planche(s) Contact festival inscribe itself in your philanthropic strategy? Why did you choose to endow a student competition? (Even though these students emerge from prestigious schools, their approach is often not yet accomplished.)
Michel Janneau: Our support to the city of Deauville for Planche(s) Contact fills a void which was beginning to frustrate us: we have the extraordinary opportunity of choosing the artists whose exhibits we will sponsor in the programs of such eminent institutions as the BnF, the Palais de Tokyo and the Grand Palais, but this often deprives us of the unsurpassed joy of discovering new young talents. The Louis Roederer Foundation award in Deauville brings us the answer by focusing exclusively on the works of photography students.
TEOP: This year, for the first time, you also wished to award an important grant to a winner chosen by the public. Their choice may be very different from that of a professional jury. Is it this participatory approach that seduced you?
MJ: We already perfectly know the enchantment of choices that are really different from that of the jury, a sort productive old friendship friction. How can one not rejoice that the public of Planche(s) Contact, cultivated, eclectic, visibly enticed by the work of young artists, can now choose its favorite artist even if its decision differs from that of a jury, finally not so professional since I am part of it!
TEOP: The Louis Roederer Foundation is a historic patron of the Planche(s) Contact festival. In previous editions, what were your favorites, or what emerging artistic approaches particularly touched/intrigued you?
MJ: My favorites were many. The artistic approaches that have touched me, amazed and seduced me were also numerous. Too many for me to attempt mentioning them. All this freshness, this creative profusion, often this technical mastery is for me the most obvious success of Planche(s) Contact, its extraordinary particularity.
FESTIVAL
Planche(s) Contact
From October 17th to November 29th, 2015
Ville de Deauville
France
http://www.deauville-photo.fr
