At a time when we constantly hear and see women reporters at war, you might be interested by the new exhibition “Women War Photographers” at Musée de La Libération de Paris, place Denfert-Rochereau, and realize that women were already active with their cameras in the 1930’s. Starting with Gerda Taro, a German Jew, who died at 27 in Spain while … Read More
Graciela Iturbide, from Coyoacan to Fondation Cartier
The first pictures I ran into at Fondation Cartier, in the show “Heliotropo 37 ” are of the Oaxaca botanical gardens, a well kept secret which I visited in 2006 with a group of friends. It was being restored by local artist Francisco Toledo who toured us around. He is the same man who in 1979, had invited photographer Graciela … Read More
In Senlis, contemporary art takes over at Fondation Francès
You might remember the extraordinary exhibition of ceramic sculptures by Cat Loray at Ivry sur Seine last year? I was totally overwhelmed by this artist who happens to live near Senlis with her husband Clément Borderie, also an artist, who creates canvases which are “tinted” by time and nature in the open. Estelle and Hervé Francès, started Fondation Francès to … Read More
At IMA, Jews from the Orient and Raymond Depardon’s photographs
Institut du Monde Arabe always has nice surprises for us and the exhibition “Juifs d’Orient” puts a light on the eternal coexistence of Jews and Muslims in most of the Mediterranean countries. It covers twenty six centuries with 280 objects from Syria, Yemen, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and a large section on North Africa where the French had strong interests until … Read More
At Roger Viollet, Gaston Paris shows his fantastic eye!
Roger-Viollet is this magical gallery on rue de Seine where millions of historical negatives owned by the City of Paris are stocked and sold. Recently taken over by photo lover Gilles Taquet, it has become more dynamic and organizes regular exhibitions of their archives. At the time when Centre Pompidou is doing a retrospective of photo reporter Gaston Paris (1903-1964), … Read More
From Dharamsala, with love
Some of you might be aware that the 14 th Dalai Lama, Tenzyn Gyato (b.1935) has left Tibet in 1959 with 100 000 Tibetans and settled in Dharamsala in order to keep its religious freedom. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Nicholas Vreeland who was raised in New York, and worked there with both Irving Penn and Richard … Read More
Photographer Samuel Fosso is impressive at MEP
Suddenly African artists and writers are hip in Paris and at the time when the Goncourt Prize is being awarded to “La Plus secrète Mémoire des Hommes” by the Dakar born, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, I enjoyed Samuel Fosso‘s exhibition at MEP, Musée Européenne de la photographie, run since 2019 by the Scot Simon Baker. The very talented photographer was born … Read More
Roger Fenton reports from Crimea, in Chantilly
It is quite amazing to think that there were already photo reporters in 1855, fifteen years after the invention of photography in 1839, and this is what the precious Roger Fenton exhibition at Château de Chantilly is teaching us. Fenton (1819-1869) was born in Lancashire and started out as a painter in Paris in Paul Delaroche‘s atelier. He soon became … Read More