As part of its cultural season, Université Toulouse Capitole is spotlighting a major figure in press portraiture with the exhibition Évidences, dedicated to Renaud Monfourny. Present from the very beginning of the Inrockuptibles adventure and a pioneering eye on the cultural landscape, the photographer offers us a selection of around forty images, recognizable by their square format, in black and white. Stripped of effects, and revealing his sitters, head-on, they testify to his personal imprint on contemporary portraiture. Interview.
JJA : To begin with, was the magazine Inrocks created largely in reaction to the other rock magazines already around in France?
RM : Above all, because no one was talking about the groups we liked. What came to be called Indie Rock, in the 1980s was ignored by the music press.
JJA : So it was a new editorial line, but was there also an aesthetic approach in the presentation?
RM : When I arrived, photographer Éric Mulet joined the team at the same time; we worked in black and white for economic reasons, but it was also what we liked doing. And at the time we did everything ourselves: the layout, proofreading, corrections; I developed my films and made my prints. The working conditions themselves influenced our work. As a young magazine, our appointments were timed, we were always racing against the clock. So it was a good mix of economic constraints and artistic desire, even though I still work with film and in the darkroom, as with the photographs in this exhibition.
JJA : You still have quite a catalogue of groups that were, or became, international artists.
RM : Yes, of course, but at the time they weren’t in demand. The Pixies, House of Love, Bjork, etc… the whole generation of the 1990s. Every time they came to Paris, I had a photo session. And there was also a kind of faith, both in me and in all my colleagues at the newspaper. The advantage of our position at Inrocks was that we met the people we liked and liked talking about.
JJA : What are you trying to photograph, the artist or the person?
RM : The person, and their gaze. I have a very simple relationship with people; I try to create a relationship, but I do not especially try to create ties.
JJA- Did you never feel used by record labels or film productions, like Franck Courtès, who left the profession, somewhat disgusted, to write?
RM : Well, first of all I chose my “victims,” so notoriety was never the issue for me; I was meeting a person whose work I liked, that was all. Besides, I didn’t often have to photograph huge stars; that was rather exceptional.
JJA : And you like to cast an unadorned gaze on your subject, in a rather stripped-down setting.
RM : Absolutely, I often proceed by elimination, precisely to avoid an overly marked environment. I remember one of my photos of Woody Allen that looked as though it had been taken in a studio, when in fact not at all; the only place that gave me a sufficiently large white background was the hotel bathroom door! I’m not much into “staging,” and not really directive either.
JJA : So how did you end up showing your portraits at UT Capitole in Toulouse?
RM : Nicolas Peyre, who teaches here, simply invited me to take part in the cultural project of his Master’s students. The idea, then, was to organize an exhibition, find funding, equipment, etc… and of course I accepted. Especially since I had the freedom to indulge myself by including my portraits of painters and visual artists, which are shown less often than those of music or cinema.
JJA : A word about the exhibition title “Evidence”?
RM : Yes, I chose it. In fact there are only people I appreciate, so it seemed obvious to me to give it that name; with parentheses for the graphic side, but for me the artists represented here are self-evident.
Jean-Jacques Ader
“Évidences” exhibition of Renaud Monfourny at UT Capitole in Toulouse, “Le petit hall”; free admission, from 9 April to 29 September 2026. Thanks to Nicolas Peyre and Paule Géry, as well as the students of the Master 2 / ACAC project.
Information: https://www.ut-capitole.fr – https://blogs.lesinrocks.com/photos/
