The exhibition Œil pour œil to mark the fifth anniversary of Signatures, Maison de Photographes. Every week we’ll be presenting you with a series on display at the Hôtel de Sauroy through June 14th, which places the work of 8 different artists into dialogue. This week, Bernard Plossu and Raphaël Helle.
INTIME, Bernard Plossu
From intimate geography to that of the great outdoors, Bernard Plossu reflects a way of being in the world. While he photographs the road by instinct, passion and necessity, he also knows that limitless geography requires small prints, since condensing immense spaces makes the viewer think and approach the image. From this “Garden of dust,” as he calls his desert landscapes, to his familiar world where sensuality vies with childhood nostalgia, Plossu invites the viewer to share this profoundly moving intimacy. Between pale clouds and trembling bodies.
Influenced by the handheld camera style of the French New Wave, I photograph in 50mm, the lens that does not distort what it sees, with a camera half as old as I am. No need for big, fancy cameras. Photography speaks about time, not only time captured, but time evoked. That’s what touches me, this discreet way of looking at and sharing the world. One could say that images are also indecisive moments.
Climate Change, Raphaël Helle
When the climate goes haywire, crocodiles swim back to the Arctic circle, polar bears burn in deserts, and oranges are doing God-knows-what. Through the whimsical character of Miss O’Range, created by Caroline Amoros, we began a photographic fable about climate change. In Morocco, golf courses are watered and swimming pools are filled to attracts tourists despite the water scarcity and rationing for its farmers. In Iceland, this isle of water, ice and fire, rising temperatures melt glaciers, but volcanic activity threatens humans with retaliation. In Dubai, human vanity imposes its excess.
This project follows several reports in which I was more interested in solutions to the problems of global warming, including the eco-district of Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, a pilot scheme at the time. Today, I’ve turned to fiction to condemn—with humor and poetry, I hope—the irrational behavior of men towards the environment.
EXHIBITION
Œil pour œil
Regards croisés, cinq ans de Signatures
May 17 – June 14, 2014
Opening on May 20th from 6pm to 9.30pm
Hôtel de Sauroy
58, rue Charlot
75003 Paris
France
Photographers on view : Bernard Plossu (Intime), Bruno Amsellem (Etranger), Xavier Lambours (Sexe), Raphaël Helle (Dérèglement climatique), Johann Rousselot (Colères), Tina Merandon (Peurs), Eric Dexheimer (Mort) and Michel Nguie (Borderline)
