Search for content, post, videos

Richard Bellia, Longwy Calling: 35 years in photographs

Preview

Published in 2016, An Eye on Music 1980–2016 retraces the career of the photographer Richard Bellia. Totaling 800 pages, the book takes the reader through thirty-five years’ worth of legendary concerts and close encounters with some of the biggest international rock stars. Scattered throughout, the reader will find intimate portraits captured backstage and photos taken onstage and among crowds of fans.

Richard was born in Longwy in 1962,he now resides in Lyon, and, to feed his passion, trails musical groups on tour. His love of art helped bring together Yvon Gérard, art collector, and Olivier Castaing, founder of the School Gallery which will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2018. Having become friends, the two share their favorite photographs. As a tribute, they wanted to organize a solo exhibition equal to the talent of this photographer who has devoted his life to translating his love of music into images.

If his pictures have been part of  the best times of Libération, the Inrockuptibles, NME or Melody Maker Richard Bellia is not a photojournalist but only a photographer. All this energy, this freshness and the pictures in the magazine convinced me that it was a job I would enjoy

He is a discoverer rather than a follower: this impulse has always driven him; there is no mechanism or automatism. For an artist of the post-punk generation, Richard Bellia did not take the usual path: fanzines and CD sleeves were his art school. He photographed the greatest musicians, and some of his photos are still in circulation. From The Cure and Nirvana to David Bowie; from rock, pop, and electronic music, to the depths of underground; from live, backstage, to posed portraits, Richard Bellia keeps dipping his lens in the sweat of the most exciting music scenes.

“I’m an idiot, a bum!”— the photographer plays it down whenever he’s asked to paint his own portrait. Self-deprecation, provocation, but also high standards inform our exchanges. Richard Bellia is at ease with live performances as he is with language. He tried his hand at radio and writing, and his statements are like well-aimed darts: they hit bull’s eye and either kill or strike up friendships. Richard Bellia is a maverick—exclusively in analog. “Time is a bitch. When I see that all my negatives fit into seven or eight binders. What the hell was I up to all these years?” You will find the answer to that question at the School Gallery and it will knock your socks off.

Bertrand Lanciaux

Bertrand Lanciaux is a French writer who lives and works in Lille, France.

 
Richard Bellia, Longwy Calling, 35 ans de photographies
March 16 to April 29, 2017
School Gallery
322 rue Saint Martin
75003 Paris
France

www.schoolgallery.fr/

Create an account or log in to read more and see all pictures.

Install WebApp on iPhone
Install WebApp on Android