A new trial with Galerie no1 to try to be noticed.

To prepare 2016 and decide how I will proceed I needed  to feature the situation correctly. During my travel to Portugal in January I had the opportunity to show my works to the only « big » photo gallery of the country. During the appointment it appeared  clearly  that I lost a lot of credibility for the owner of the shop when I explained why I had no limited and numbered collection of photos. So it was completely necessary to have a stock of photos devoted to this market. Furthermore, the direct sales becoming scarce and requiring more investments I needed to have a pricing  for a group of photos that could allow to pay the commission and fees of a partner.

When I entered the AAB association one objective was to be able to find new distribution networks. After one year, it became clear that this structure was not adapted to generate sales.

So, I contacted again Galerie no. 1 in Paris and joined two small exhibitions in order to extend my connections.

 The pearl of the Tage (River of Lisbon- View of the Bridge 25th April)

My first participation was for a collective booth in the exhibition called « 4arts » that took place in the Marais in the center of Paris. As it took place mid February, Galerie No. 1 decided to collect works around a big subject that is « LOVE ». I presented two photos in 30x40cm: Planet Love 2 (see previous post of November 2015) and a new photo resulting from my Portuguese trip.

Last year the informations I had from this show where good.  That explains why I wanted to be present to have the feeling of the show. The results where globally bad, only few exhibitors managed to sell. Located in the Marais I expected to see a higher quality in the visitors, but it did not happen.  Last year the « Journées du Patrimoine » took place on the same day and this event attracted a better public. Nevertheless it appeared clearly that if I wanted to be noticed I needed to have bigger photos to catch directly the visitor's eyes. So it will be more profitable to exhibit a bigger size than two small.

 

The other small show I joined was called « Collage » (Pasting). I decided to present the panel realized for the COP 21 exhibition of the AAB (see the post in December 2015). The gallery partners found that the purpose of the work was interesting and that it could be worth to try to launch a petition with « change.org » web site.  We did it! If you consider that there is an urgency to promote « green  photography »  you can join my petition, which presently written in French.

Today the 9th May the industrials have no need to be afraid, I have only 13 signatures.


 

Liberty I picture your names. A folio to commemorate "Je suis Charlie".

The 4th work I presented was a folio of eight pages called « Liberty, I picture your names ». This is the biggest enterprise I undertook in photography and it takes its origin in the poem of Paul Eluard and its illustration by Fernand Leger in the 60s. It shows the complete basement of the statue of the Place de la République. The 21 panoramic bands present all the testimonies of the people. Each band corresponds to one strophe of the poem. The number of pages also reminds the numbers of illustrated pages by Leger. The background I illustrated with my "panoroïds" of foliage taken in Autumn 2015. Certain people have left flowers, drawings, poems,photos or candles. I leave my "panaroïds".

The job to build this folio was huge. I first needed to associate the photos using Photoshop to produce the merge and correct the circular lines. Then, I had to find a correct length for the bands. Each band is different in length like the verses of a poem which do not contain the same number of letters.  Once the panoramas were build I had to form the pages of the folio and select the two images that would illustrate the background.

Initially I intended to present the complete poem in one textile band like a « Kakemono » but the cost of it obliged to choose a more modest presentation as a folio to begin with.
I was not in Paris during the exhibition, but was present at the varnishing. Like always I had no comment about this work. The only comments I got were related to the poor presentation I had choosen for the 3 bands. Today the artist is confronted to a gap of culture in art from the public. It is no need to invest oneself too much in a message for the others, if you do something, you do it only for you. In my case it was a necessity to me to reply to the monstrousnesss of the terrorist acts with something out of the common. My response is similar to the actions of many people who to overcome their rage produced something to transform their pain or anger in something more positive in order to express that " they" had lost in their objective, and that our values are stronger.

I am certain that no one produced such a work. If you look at the messages deposited in the basement of the statue you will have the real meaning of liberty. Certain refer to the liberty of Love, other privilege the religion, and so on. Each contribution is an example of our public tolerance.  You might think that this is not special, but at the moment I write this text on 8th May, everything has disappeared. So this folio is history and memory now.

I produced two samples of the folio one was exhibited in the « Je suis Artist » show of the A.A.B. Gallery. The second has been given to an auction organized to support the victims of the November events. Today I have no news of the second sample. This folio will be presented in the other events. It is priced 150 €.

Commemorative exhibition to "Je suis Charlie" in the AAB gallery on January 2016.

 It was important for me to symbolically show my commitment with the spirit that came out from the « Je suis charlie » events. The artistic association I belong planned an exhibition to commemorate this spirit. Called « Je suis artist » (I am an Artist) it took place beginning January from the 8th to 17th. I also contributed to the organization of the show. Initially I thought I would present previous works realized in 2015, but the last events of the 13th November urged me to be more creative and present something completely new I had not done before.
So I decided to present 4 works. 3 panoramic bands based on street-art paintings  from locations directly involved in the dramatic events of November 2015 : a wall just beside the restaurant Cambodge based rue Aligre and fences installed around a bar located in the middle of place de la République.

As the walls and fences were quite long I could not use my « Traveling photo » technique. So I took several classical photos which were merged with Photoshop. Then in order to express my contribution I integrated my Panoroïds photos.

The generic title for these new panoramic photos was « Jean chante Paris» (John sings Paris- but there is a joke with the French verb "J'ENCHANTE" which means "I lay a spell on Paris") and each work was named after a song or poem celebrating Paris.

For me my photos are like writings and I consider that one of the missions of the artist is to « Sing his world around ». Along with the works we had to provide with few words as a commentary.  Mine was :

Etre artiste à Paris en 2015 s’est avéré difficile. Nous

représentons la liberté de création. Entre émotion

et information, notre contribution reste indispensable. Ma réponse

est une série de photos panoramiques intitulées « Jean chante Paris ».

Chaque photo est un chant du griot photographe que je suis. 

Being an artist in Paris in 2015 has been difficult. We represent creativity and freedom. Between emotion and information our contribution remains an obligation. My answer is a group of panoramic photos named « Jean chante Paris » (John sings Paris).  Each photo is a song from the photographic bard I am.

1) Paris sera toujours Paris. Paris will always be Paris.  (Music : Offenbach, French Cancan, variété, Bataclan..) Maurice  Chevalier, 20x90 cm

2) Paris j’ai deux Amours  (Paris I have two loves. (Paris historique et la photo) Baker, 20x90 cm

3) Feux (Lumière, flammes, bougies, fleurs, amour, mort, hommages) Aragon, 20x90 cm

Paris sera toujours Paris panoramic features a wall paintiong from the Place de la République that became emblamatic.It reproduces the Coat of Arms and Motto  of the city «  Fluctuat nec mergitur », a Latin phrase meaning "Tossed but not sunk".

"Paris sera toujours Paris" panoramic features a street-wall painting from the Place de la République that became emblematic.  To it I have added special a collection of Panoroïds representing the Eiffel Tower dancing specially lighted for the commemoration during two weeks.