Through eleven exhibitions representative of the diversity of the photographic practices of today and the 20th century, the Promenades Photographiques de Vendôme is inviting viewers to ask themselves the question, “Who is a photographer?” Journey through this 12th edition with our favorites and an interview with Odile Andrieu, artistic director.
“Who is a photographer?” This question which served Odile Andrieu as a common thread to develop the 2016 program is not finding one response, but several propositions. They celebrate reporting, artists’ approaches or those of amateurs, from the most knowledgable to the novices who attended workshops all year long at Vendôme. This festival never loses view of its aim to be educational and to provide just as much to see and to ponder.
Witness, the classic Weegee exhibition at the Musée du Cloître issued from the collection of Michèle and Michel Auer that offers a panorama of this photographer’s expertise. Of Hungarian origin, he liked to photograph the night and crime of 1930s and 1940s New York. It’s an ensemble of photos, known and lesser-known, which have documentary value today.
A couple steps away, we fall on the Chapelle Saint-Jacques invested by Thomas Sauvin, which perfectly inhabits this solemn space. Collector of Chinese family photographs from the 1980s to 2000s he knew how to take advantage of this exceptional space. On the wall is a flow of prints beginning with a newborn and finishing with a mortuary portrait (like the story of a life, or, rather, of our lives). In the choir is a giant print on cloth, and at the center is a tray that has hundreds of negatives that the public is invited to touch and view with a magnifier. This is the heart of the collection that Thomas Sauvin saved from destruction: film negatives that he recuperates in a Beijing recycling site.
At the Manèges, welcomed by the onsite work of Madame Moustache, do not miss in the profusion of photos those of Manon Régnier, one of the winners of the Mark Grosset Prize 2015, as well as the collective exhibition presenting work of different schools, of which are les Gobelins and Agnès Varda. Finally, in the park of the Château, there is a place for the grave and serious subject matter of immigrants by Eric Bouvet to also view outdoors. That is also what the Promenades Photographiques de Vendôme is about, the possibility to discover the world and its current events.
FESTIVAL
Promenades photographiques de Vendôme
From June 25th to September 18th, 2016
Vendôme
France
http://promenadesphotographiques.com
Tirages réalisés par le laboratoire Picto
http://www.picto.fr
http://www.pictoonline.fr
