“There are things in your life that only you will see, stories that only you will hear. If you don’t tell them or write them down, if you don’t make the picture, these things will not be seen, these things will not be heard,” says the photographer and teacher Emmet Gowin. One can imagine him saying such a thing to his photo students at Princeton University where he taught for 36 years. Gown through his teaching and work is one of today’s most influential living photographers. Continue reading “Emmet Gowin Paris Restrospective”
Martin Parr’s Paris
Paris’ Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) with a salute to British photographer Martin Parr gave him carte blanche to photograph Paris. For two years he pictured la vie parisienne with his trade mark style from tourists on the Champs Elysee to Bastille Day to Paris Plage to a day in the life of the Goutte d’Or neighborhood. Continue reading “Martin Parr’s Paris”
Robert Mapplethorpe Paris Retrospective
Back in 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography exhibition “A Perfect Moment” was cancelled by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington due to pressure from conservative politicians. His homo-erotic and S&M pictures at the time fueled a national debate over public funding for the arts. Some of these controversial pictures and approximately 200 other images spanning his career from the early 1970’s until his death at 42 of AIDS are currently part of a large retrospective of his work exhibited at Paris’ Grand Palais . Continue reading “Robert Mapplethorpe Paris Retrospective”
James Startt’s Walking Billboards
“Walking billboards in contemporary culture” is how photographer James Startt describes his new series of pictures “J’ecrit donc je suis” recently exhibited at the Galerie Agathe Gaillard. For these photographs, Startt- well know for his pictures of Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France- takes his camera to the streets to investigate how the lowly T-shirt serves as a medium for many messages. Continue reading “James Startt’s Walking Billboards”
Robert Adams Paris Retrospective
“The Place We Live” at Paris Jeu de Paume is a retrospective of Robert Adams’ photography (until May 18, 2014). This exhibition, which has already been seen in several North American venues such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is based on work purchased by The Yale Art Gallery (1,465 master prints) in 2005. Continue reading “Robert Adams Paris Retrospective”
Henri Cartier-Bresson Paris Retrospective
One of the world’s most influential photographers is featured with a retrospective at Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou. Henri Cartier-Bresson, (August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004) considered by many to be the father of photojournalism, blended a remarkable sense of design with the ability to capture the significance of an instant… the decisive moment. Continue reading “Henri Cartier-Bresson Paris Retrospective”
Brassai, For the Love of Paris
Every so often back in the ’30s, dark stretches of nighttime Paris would be lit by a sulfurous flash. Brassai was at work, taking pictures in which conventional beauty held little appeal. Like Toulouse-Lautrec, he was a well-born, highly trained visual artist who found inspiration in the down and dirty. Parisians will now have a chance to see these mythic photos with the exhibition “Brassai, pour l’Amour de Paris” at the Hotel de Ville. Continue reading “Brassai, For the Love of Paris”
Helene Schmitz Kudzu Project
The Galerie Maria Lund is showing Swedish photographer Helene Schmitz’s “Kudzu Project,” a visual mediation on nature and the impermanence of things. The mostly black and white photographs are a poetic melange of documentation and art—at once beautiful and yet subtly terrifying like a David Lynch film. Continue reading “Helene Schmitz Kudzu Project”
Sergio Larrain, Vagabond Photographs
A retrospective exhibition of work by the enigmatic Chilean photographer Sergio Larrain, curated by Agnès Sire, was one of the highlights of last summer’s Rencontres d’Arles photo festival. Now Parisians have an opportunity to see photos by this remarkable but little-known photographer with an exhibition (Vagabondages) at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson Continue reading “Sergio Larrain, Vagabond Photographs”
Vanessa Winship Paris Photography Exhibit
“She Dances on Jackson” is the title of Vanessa Winship’s new exhibition of black and white photographs at the Fondation Henri Cartier Bresson in Paris (until July 28). Winship won the 2011 Henri Cartier Bresson Award with 30,000 euros allowing her to travel across the United States, from California to Virginia, New Mexico to Montana to photograph the fabled ‘American dream.’ The exhibition of photos resulting from this trip present a lyrical conversation between landscape and portraits of the people that inhabit it. Continue reading “Vanessa Winship Paris Photography Exhibit”
Laure Albin Guillot at Jeu de Paume
People into photo know many of the names of photographers associated with Paris such as Doisneau, Lisette Model or Dora Maar, but Laure Albin Guillot’s name usually draws a blank. Now a retrospective exhibition at the Jeu de Paume revisiting the work of this unsung photography heroine is a step in the direction of reestablishing Guillot’s (1879-1962) place in the history of French photography Continue reading “Laure Albin Guillot at Jeu de Paume”