The campaign in ParisBack to the 19th century

Top chrono. Every two years, for a month, the capital displays its obsession with photography. Here is the 14th episode of the Mois de la photo. Around the European House of photography and with it are proposed many events on the subject, a little difficult this year, "the printed page", in other words books of photos and other magazines. But the operation out limits given and many galleries and museums benefit from to show a topic which can be off-topic on the image.

One of the most spectacular exhibitions stands in the Marsh, passage from Retz. It is dedicated to the Soviet montage from 1917. Organized by Olga Sviblova, the experienced Director of the European House of photography in Moscow, she presents a multitude of original documents. As early as 1917, Lenin, in one of his decrees, declared that photography was an effective means of propaganda in a country where 70 of the population were illiterate. Difficult to show the reality of the time, catastrophic, for the purposes of propaganda. Photomontage was appropriate to imagine bright future and happiness of the masses. The aesthetic is constructivism, advocating the end of "art for art", according to the artist Rodchenko, replaced by a creation in the service of the cause of the people. Political compositions are learned geometric montages where colors, patterns, and forms are placed in a contrasting manner.

Thus, the soldiers of the Red Army in 1930 by Boris Ignatovich are presented diagonally, rifle bayonet forming a black line which bar the sheet on a red background. Constructivism also like to express the movement, and the photomontage on sport, such as those of 1928 on the spartakiad, are an exceptional dynamism. Images of the women are repeated to infinity and seem to appear graceful birds on a background of sophisticated cutting. This period is an extraordinary graphic inventiveness and influence Western significantly art and advertising.

The campaign in Paris

Back to the 19th century. In 1871, in the uprising of the Paris Commune, the photograph is a relatively common practice already. A State pharmacist, Hippolyte Blancard, who has a passion for photography, is the Chronicle of events on 500 prints from glass plates. They have been recently rediscovered and are exposed to the historical library of the city of Paris. A book published by Gallimard also resumed as a whole. It shows a Paris like by many aspects to the campaign. Thus at Buzenval now the name of a station of Metro near Nation is a farm. There is also the pride of the people, these men to the right eye, such as residents of the working-class city of avenue Rapp he ask. Finally, Blancard loves photographing trees, especially in winter when they draw dark lines against a clear sky. To the point of sometimes forget his political...

The tree is also an obsessive subject a few years later to Eugène Atget (1857-1927). The great French photographer is shown in the Marsh by Karsten Greve Gallery, usually specialist of contemporary artists. He bought at the Moma in New York a set of prints duplicates which some are exposed and even sell (from 19,000 euros). It is the surrealist Man Ray that first lives beyond the documentary aspect of the clichés of Atget. He has photographed Paris and its surroundings, the life of the people, the magic of the places and subjects by repetitive series, which gives it a modern dimension. Unfortunately, Karsten Greve, the photos are exposed without bias and the prints are of uneven quality. The most interesting are the landscapes, such as this mysterious Misty view of the Grand Trianon of Versailles or Saint-Cloud Park where trees are reflected in a dark frothy mass in the waters of the Lake.