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Photographies contemporaines
HSBC France is presenting “photography’s new guard” in a first-time retrospective exhibition of the Foundation’s prize winners since its inception in 1995. Following on from the publication of the book Photographies Contemporaines – Points de vue (Editions Textuel, 2006), the exhibition shows the work of 24 of today’s young photographers, tracking how their work has evolved since they won their awards by juxtaposing the photographs the Foundation selected at the time with more recent images. The exhibition – spanning intimate and oneiric pieces, portraits, documentaries and landscapes – explore these young artists’ diverse approaches, gazes and sensibilities.
Muses d’Orsay is my response to a commission from the Musée d’Orsay asking me to photograph the museum’s employees in their place of work. With the Musée d’Orsay housing the national collection of 19th century works, I suggested that each employee take his or her own photograph with a rubber bulb snap like in the old days. Each person had ten takes, in other words a roll of film. It was up to each to choose when and how they would be photographed. So they became artists for the time it took them to photograph themselves and thus assume responsibility for their own image.