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.


 

Be exhibited, a must for an artist !

In the last months many artistic events occurred in Paris. As I was not exhibited for obvious reasons I decided to satisfy my search of fame and glory in my virtual works and world. 

Even if these photos are pure fiction they all question the position of the artist in our modern cities and the price to pay to be exhibited. 

Here, I have choosen the following exhibitions: FIAC,  Picasso Mania and Expo Photo at the Grand Palais, GMAC at la Bastille.

And at last of course the street. 

Confirmation of a new style in my photo.

As I explained in the previous posts my work around COP 21 thematic has conducted me to find a new way of presenting my work. The posters I designed were planned to be exhibited in a real project which did not become a reality. So to avoid frustration I made them real in a virtual photographic reality. I produce about 20 photos including my COP 21 posters and will present here below several for you to figure out the result.

 

The choice of a black&white background with a standard size including my creations in colour will be the basis of this new trend. All images displayed and mixed are all my images. As I love black&white photos and my "panoroïds", I will mix them in the future. It is the way I found to really install my work in the Street Art Photography Movement. My creations will through this method be presented in urban contexts and environments.

« Janus et Rébus sont sur la banquise» a creative turning point.

As I already said since September I am in a creative period. My colleagues from the A.A.B. who organized an exhibition about the COP 21 objectives were lacking material to show. I decided to think about what I could do to support their initiative. I began by conceiving a photo with the material of « La Géode en Folie» and produced an enigmatic composition that illustrated the title « Janus and Rébus are on the bank-ice ». Very pleased with my inventive composition I sent it by email expecting an enthusiastic response. « I don't understand. » was the answer. So, I was obliged to provide an explanation. I found that very comical and instructive. I changed slightly the composition, add an explanation and decided to present the result, called Mea Culpa, in the exhibition.

But I needed to present something. The idea to use the collection of the COP 21 posters (see my previous post) came up. As I had no intention to glue my posters in the streets of Paris like street artists do with their work (they do that at night away from the police), I imagine to use Photoshop to include the posters in photos from Parisian streets. The A.A.B. being at the origin of this idea, the first photo presented is the outside wall of the association with some of my posters.

On the other hand, the objective of this exhibition linked with the COP 21 conference was to start thinking ecological in our artistic fields. Therefore, the participants had to provide a detailed label describing the material used in the exhibited works. So, I tried to find an ecological way to present my numerical images. My surprise was complete to state that after several hours on the web searching for a green printing solution, there was in fact no simple solution available at my level in Paris in 2015. There are only few companies offering « Green » printing solutions, and generally available only for companies or industrial quantities, which was not the case for me. For photographers you can choose the more expensive papers made out with plant fibres like cotton or bamboo for instance. Then, you can eventually choose a printing company that will respect a green chart for the treatment of their wastes but there was no photographic laboratory claiming a really green attachment in the list. Of course I looked to the inks and other chemical products used in photography, the results were similar. The conclusion was clear: There is today no possibility to be a 100% green photographer at my scale. One can choose subjects related with this field, but finally the printing of the images or their distribution will demand energy and non-ecological products that will affect environment. So symbolically I decided to present my images with laser prints using recycled paper and not photographic paper. I will show two images sized 30x40cm and a panel of 60x90 cm composed with glued images because there is no other printing possibilities. Of course the quality of the image is deteriorated, but it is the only way I found to be green. So for the future if we want to preserve climate we will have to make compromises with our standards of living and our criteria of

judgement on photography. As long as technology and the industry will not provide a new solution, we will have to change our behaviours. Presently, almost no photographer is ready to follow this way, we are trapped.

"Au-Delà du Réel" (Outter Limits) The exhibition and my Paris Photo Expo 2015.

I mentioned earlier that I had no experience of such an organization, but now this is finished, the exhibition is open and the 17 artists and their 60 works are displayed. Now we need to follow the event and try to identify the impact of the communication to the press and hope many visitors will come including to the Vernissage

that will take place next Wednesday evening on the 4th November.

If there are sales it would be « the cherry on the cake ».

An artist is someone who always lives in reaction to his surrounding. At the beginning I intended to just present previous works. This choice has also been done by some artists. But in September I found the energy again to produce new images based on the Geode, a rounded cinema of the "Cité Des Sciences". Plenty of ideas came up during the shooting period of the photos. So I decided, to break a rule and have learned to use partially the software «Photoshop». Why make such a change? During the selection of the works I was confronted with the use of photo composition in its diversity. The subject of the Geode itself forced me into that direction because it was quite difficult to produce with that building good « Panoroïds» using a single image, whereas just in employing the symmetry of a mirror the possibilities became multiple. The other reason is that be in a cage of a « No Photoshop User » had no important impact on the sales or my fame. So I decided, to try an experience with this exhibition and see how the public will react to my new creations. Of course the basis of my work remains the « Panoroïds», but I will extend the variety of my photos with Photoshop. This choice should also open gates to participate at many thematic exhibitions.

Finally, I conceived how I would contribute: I would produce a small exhibition within the major show. This was my way to express that between artist and their creative process there are correspondences. In my case the sky, the architecture, Photoshop, the use of software, street art, reversed symmetry, movement, digital photo are things that could be also found in the work of the other exhibitors. There are five pieces exhibited shown is the photo. The two on the right are single Panoroïds. 

The first is called « Bulb Bottle » and present a distortion of the building as I generally do, but here the result is astonishing.

The second work is my first « Installation » called Euréka. It illustrates the principle of reversed symmetry obtained with a mirror. The resulting view presents an electric bulb. This recalls me Edison, and the saying « Et la lumière fut » (And Light became true). By extension it evokes my creativity and the new ideas that came up during that period. The choice of making a package to present the mirror and the photo was logical as there was a volume created initially and it needed to be shaped. The packaging is a mixed of different papers which found an application instead of being thrown to the litter. This reuse is compatible with my present financial situation and the promotion of the COP 21 Conference that will take place in a month in Paris. The result is like a box and the visitor is obliged to look in it to see the bulb. I have written «Boite à idée » (Box of an idea) which is a common expression in French, but usually with idea written in plural form and not single. This box also was a reference to a discussion I had with an other artist about her work which reproduced a « camera obscura » my work being a «camara clara ». Finally, I want to show that I am a Street Art artist so I tagged the packaging. So this box is the only « dirty » 3D object that interacts with the visitor.

The two others photos are "Love Planet (2)" and a "SelfPortrait" using reversed symmetry produced with a software.

 The last photo on the left is « Le Grand Totem » (The Big Totem) is a complete photo composition using plenty of elements all taking their origin in the Géode building. This is a more conceptual and esoteric approach.

All the photos belong to a set called « La Géode en Folie » (When the Géode got mad). « Folie » is the name of the different architectural elements painted red that can be found in the Parc of La Villette.

« Au-delà du Réel » (Outter Limits) my first experience as an exhibition organizer for the Ateliers des Artistes de Belleville, 29 October – 9 November 2015

   

Poster of the exhibition. 

For seven months I have prepared a collective exhibition of photos. The task is not easy because I had no experience in this field, there was not in the beginning a big motivation within the association to participate and this event had been organized in the past with success. I have selected different subjects that  had to be open enough and original. The final choice was for « Au-Delà du Réel » (Beyond Reality).  Next week the exhibition will take place in the gallery of the A.A.B., 17 artists including me will be shown with 55 works. I have provided a large amount of work to advertise the event in the press using Internet.

Before September  I intended to present previous photos because I had not been very creative, but this changed completely when I started to work on a new subject: La Géode, which is a spherical building near the Cité des Sciences a 360° panoramic screen. The exterior of the architecture is covered with metallic tiles that reflect the sky and its environment. I do not know why, but my creativity came back and finally I decided to present a set of four completely new photos.

Love Planet, a photo composition made with a duplicated "Panoroïd" and Photoshop.

In complete contradiction with what I have produced until now I have used Photoshop and photo-compositions for the event. It will be interesting to look at the reactions of the public. I have tried to do my best but the situation in France regarding the art market is so flat, that it is impossible to provide any forecasts. A next post will comment the results of the show. Cross fingers!

A new initiative and experience with the AAB, Ateliers des Artistes de Belleville : the Portes Ouvertes (Open Doors 2015), 29th May-1st June.

Even if this post is written in October 2015 I felt the need to enter an artist association in 2014, and made unsuccessful trials that year. In 2015 I subscribed to the AAB the nearest association from my apartment. I did not want an association based on photography because my customers are not photographers, the latter being generally only interested in informations about my shooting technique and forget everything about emotion and the finality of my work.

Their objective is to reproduce it, not for money, but for narcissistic reasons. So after a private presentation to a member of the association I was admitted.   

 Panoroïde without Photoshop. Mestissages, 2014. This suite of photos were presented during the Open Doors 2015 at the Régie de Quartier, 4 rue Robert Houdin, Paris 11ème. 

This association is among the oldest in Paris and became famous in the 70s when they were very active against the architectural projects of that period, which aimed to destroy many old buildings symptomatic of the Old Paris.

Thank you for the local association "Régie de Quartier Fontaine au Roi" for having given me the opportunity to participate to the Open Doors.

To welcome to the new members, we were invited to participate in a small exhibition, called Mini Mix,  that took place in the gallery of the association.  The major event of this association is their Open Doors that take place each year during one week-end  end of May or beginning of June. To participate you need to have a workshop, or a place to exhibit your work alone or collectively. I managed to find quickly a local association that supported this initiative and offered a larger space to present my photos  that I shared with another artist.

Photo from the inside.

The Open Doors took place on the   and globally were positive, even if the space is located south–west from the centre where most workshops are.  Sharing the space with Françoise Gasser also member of the AAB, was a real pleasure and there was no competition between our personalities or works. Globally I sold mostly cheap photos and some large framed ones. The amount of the sale was not very big, but as there was no rent, it paid at least for the printing and framing of the photos.

Beside this event I decided to become active in the association and entered the commission responsible for the agenda of the gallery.