(The Lure of Books)
What is the present relationship between photography and books? What kind of projects do photographers produce with the printed page in mind? Most seem eager to work for galleries and museums in order to make their way, finding themselves increasingly involved in the art market. Although many photography books are published each year, they represent a fairly small sector of publishing and photographers no longer expect publishers (including those of magazines) to provide any real support for their projects. Books tend to be little more than catalogues, both in terms of their form and the way they are put together. They present reproductions of works whose size and substance can only be fully appreciated on a gallery wall, and there is a widening gap between the original and its reproduction on the page.
Having said this, there are still photographers who think (or even dream) of books, and who continue to produce projects with the printed page in mind. Some work in the tradition of documentary photography; others are artists who turn to the print medium as part of their work. They take into account the specific characteristics of the page, exploring the various ways in which images can be put in sequence and their interaction with different texts. Photographers thus engage in creative dialogue with graphic designers and writers. They opt for the page as it offers them a more intimate relationship with the image, unlike the spectacular scenography of many exhibitions.
We have decided to focus on the visual and intellectual achievements of these photographers and outstanding publishers, at a time when there is renewed interest in books, particularly among collectors, and when major books in the history of photography are more and more often referred to - and exhibited - as works of art in themselves.
Gabriel Bauret,
Artistic coordinator
Joel Meyerowitz. Out of the Ordinary, 1970-1980
Jeu de paume - Site Sully
Pierre Etaix. Clowns and Cinema
Galerie Serge Aboukrat
François Delebecque. Photographs and Children's Books
Galerie En Marge
Didier Lefèvre. Le Photographe
Atelier demi-teinte
Xavier Roy. Book of the Living
Galerie Forêt Verte
Tendance Floue. Are We?
Les Frigos
Anne-Lise Broyer & Nicolas Comment. Fading
Galerie Madé
Ryan McGinley
Galerie du Jour - agnès b.
Édouard Levé. America
Galerie Léo Scheer
Nina Korhonen. My American Grandma, 1993-1999
Centre culturel suédois
File indienne. An installation by Didier Goupy
La Tour Jean sans Peur
Jean-Baptiste Huynh. Le Regard à l'œuvre
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
Emmanuel Berry. Birds from Sens - A Hidden Collection
Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Grande galerie de l'Évolution
Jean-Christophe Béchet. Views n°0, A Photographic Manifesto
La Chambre Claire
Nicolas Taffin and Michel Melot. The Book
Galerie de la BPI, Centre Pompidou
Masao Yamamoto. Nakazora, Between Heaven and Earth
Galerie Camera Obscura
Desiree Dolron. Exaltation, Gaze, Xteriors
Institut néerlandais
Jorma Puranen. Glacial Expanses
Institut finlandais
Jakob Gautel. Maria Theodora
Musée Zadkine
Catherine Poncin. De l'image par l'image
Galerie les filles du calvaire
Zbigniew Libera. Nouvelles impressions d'Afrique
Zbigniew Libera. Ce qui fait l'estafette
Galerie Anne de Villepoix
Institut polonais
Jens Ullrich. Mnamni, Collages of Africa
Goethe Institut, Galerie Condé
Donigan Cumming. Dozing, Sleep, Nightmare
Centre culturel canadien