My research in photography is meetings my neighbors, the people. The subjects come to me from the unexpected of everyday life. In fact, I record people in the signs they make in going through life. – Roland Laboye
Roland Laboye was born on March 25, 1944 in Castres, in the South West of France where he continued his studies and apprenticeship as a photographer “on the job”. He says “I always wanted to make the Vaugirard school and finally, I did without it”. In 1963, he bought his first camera, a Leica M3, second-hand and by mail, from a photographer in Saint-Brieuc, then he worked in a laboratory before setting up his own studio in his hometown. He takes photos of weddings, industry, local reportages. In 1972, he was admitted to the Cercle photographique des XII founded in 1936 in Toulouse by Germaine Chaumel and participated for the first time in an exhibition which was followed by many others. In 1974, he was awarded the Royan Photographic Research grant. In 1977, he received the Niépce Prize from the Société des Gens d’images ( law of 1901) founded in 1955 in Paris by Albert Plécy, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Raymond Grosset. In 1980, he received a scholarship as part of the Year of Heritage in France, with a reportage on Burgundy on the theme “People of the vineyards, people of wines”. In 1982, he received a sponsorship grant from the Phoenix Houses, “People in their house”, grant for the creation of the Delegation for the arts, from the Ministry of Culture. The following year, he was artist-resident at the International Center for Research, Creation and Animation in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. From 1984 to 2009, artistic director of Photo-Vision and the Journées de la photographie in Montpellier, curator of numerous exhibitions and events. In 1985, he received the title of Knight of Arts and Letters. In 1986, a reportage on Lisbon, commissioned by the Franco-Portuguese Institute. In 1989, he inaugurated with “La comédie de la place … et elsewhere” the new gallery of the Corum Espace Photo Angle in Montpellier; he participated in the collective reportage in Nîmes with Abbas, Martine Franck, Richard Kalvar, Patrick Zachmann … From 1990 reportages: on the suburbs with Marc Riboud and Patrick Zachmann for the Editions Denoël; 1992, reportage on Almeria in Spain, commissioned by Almediterranea; 1993, on the feast of San Fermin in Pamplona; 1995, on Thessaloniki in Greece; 1997, on Rome; 2000, on Jerusalem and is the curator for the exhibition “Easter 2 thousand eggs, collection M + M Auer”; 2002, on the street and on t-shirts; 2005, he returns to Greece and stays in Brazil; 2006, in the Petit Bard district in Montpellier; 2007, curator of the traveling exhibition “Look! children M + M Auer collection ”; 2008, in Sao Paulo, co-curator of the exhibition “Olhar e fingir, collection M + M Auer” at the Museum of Modern Art, as part of the Year of Brazil in cooperation with France. From 1984, he was a training supervisor at the Rencontres internationales de la photographie à Arles (1984, 1989 “Le Calcul Pedestrian”, 1994 “L’œil malicieux”), at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône in 1985, at the ‘Superior School of Visual Art in Geneva in 1986, Imagina Off in Almeria “The Universe of the Street” in 1992, with the magazine Foto-Mundo “Discovering Buenos Aires” in 1993, in Marrakech “Souk d’ images “in 1995, from 1997 to 2001” Tous dans la rue “at the Rencontres cévenoles de Bessèges, in Almeria” Le théâtre de la rue “in 2003 and” En la calle “at the Andalusian Center of Photography, from 2009 to 2012, at the Union Nationale Objectif Image in Montpellier…
His works are in the collections of the National Library of France in Paris, at the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône, at the Galerie du Château d’eau in Toulouse, at the Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki, at the M + M Auer Ory Foundation in Hermance and in private collections.
Roland Laboye : Théâtre de la rue 1969-2019
Curators: Michèle and Michel Auer
From January 23 to May 17, 2020
Fondation Auer Ory pour la photographie
10 rue du Couchant
CH-1248 Hermance
Exhibition booklet:
Roland Laboye – Carnet n°28
Fondation Auer Ory pour la photographie 64 pages / 59 photographies noir/blanc Prix : 24 CHF / 22 €
