It started with a tombola…
It all started when Leonie won a flight from Dakar to Paris in a tombola… From that seed and lots of discussion on flickr developed the idea to meet Leonie and arrange a student organised study visit in Paris. Paris has a huge range of photography galleries so there was plenty to see, and a few months later 11 students, tutor Clive White and various partners and friends spent a few happy and inspirational days in sunny Paris.
We were a mixed group in every way. Students travelled from Berlin, Russia, Senegal and Switzerland as well as the UK. Some students were on their first study visit while others have been to quite a few over the years, and the group included textiles student Sarah Dodds. The range of perspectives and experience led to interesting and lively discussions.
Between us we saw more than 20 exhibitions in total across four days, starting with the Cartier-Bresson blockbuster at the Pompidou. I won’t try to cover all but just mention a few highlights.
Our first evening in Paris began with a stroll through Montmartre to look at the site of some of Atget’s pictures, led by Amano Samarpan. Amano’s impressive detective work had tracked down a range of sites so we could literally stand in Atget’s footsteps, allowing us to see how Paris had changed and to appreciate the decisions Atget made. He often sidestepped the obvious view for one that gave a different perspective. For example, Amano had found a range of postcards of the Place du Tertre showing the Sacre Coeur in the background: Atget had moved around the square to frame quite a different picture, more characteristic of everyday Paris in his day.
Friday began with another highlight: an exhibition at Le Bal called ‘Ponte City’. Photographers Michael Subotsky and Patrick Waterhouse explored a 54 storey tower building in Johannesburg: built during apartheid, Ponte City was designed as a place so self-sufficient people wouldn’t need to leave, with its own shops and services, pools and cafes. Since apartheid the building has had a checkered life, home to a moving community very different from the wealthy elite it was designed for. Over some years Waterhouse and Subotsky photographed the residents, windows, doors, views and almost every aspect of the building. The installation at Le Bal included publicity material for the building as well as papers and photographs belonging to departed tenants. I think we all came away from this exhibition inspired by it. It is interesting to compare this picture of the Le Bal installation with previous installations of this work – viewable on this link.
The day progressed with a view of exquisite (and occasionally risqué) Mapplethorpe prints at the Grand Palais. I saw an immersive exhibition of Bill Viola video installations while others went to Guido Guidi at the Fondation Cartier Bresson.
On Saturday we visited the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, seeing a range of exhibitions including Martin Parr’s Paris (with a ‘make your own cliché’ photobooth). Student Emma Drye was inspired by this visit to emulate Parr’s vision of Paris.
Also at MEP, Fouad Elkoury’s dreamlike installation consisted of three screens each running slideshows of his work. The screens billowed in a light breeze and music and ambient sounds accompanied the slideshow. The whole effect was powerful and very resonant: pictures came and went, entering your consciousness and moving on, the whole becoming more than the sum of its parts. In the basement Jean-Michel Fauquet’s extraordinary dark prints and objects seemed perfectly at home in the gloom. Those who couldn’t make it there in person may wish to check out a virtual MEP exhibition here.
Accompanied by Clive and his friend and fellow photographer Francis Azemard, we then walked through the Marais quarter visiting a number of small exhibitions before seeing Noemie Goudal and Ellen Kooi at Galerie des Filles de Calvaire.
Sunday culminated in a luminous exhibition of Robert Adams’ documentary exploration of the beauty and tragedy of the American West at the Jeu de Paume. Adams’ contemplative and restrained approach contrasted with Mathieu Pernot’s contemporary documentary pieces.
Overall I think it’s fair to say that the visit was a great success. We saw a wide selection of work including a range of documentary approaches as well as aesthetic and conceptual explorations. Seeing the work installed is a very different experience from viewing online, and spending time discussing it made for a significant bonding experience. Meeting fellow students and seeing work together is always inspirational, making us all feel part of a joint adventure. Not everyone can make it to Paris, but I would encourage people to consider arranging visits in their own area. It is a really worthwhile experience.
Image credits: 1. Richard Brown, 2. & 3. Eileen Rafferty, 4. Stan Dickinson
Although only present for the first two days, I can endorse Eileen’s view that this was a highly enjoyable and worthwhile event. It is so, so valuable for a distance learner to be able to spend some time in the company of fellow students. We did so much that it’s taken me three blog posts to cover it! They are :
http://standickinson.com/2014/04/18/paris-in-the-springtimeepisode-one/
http://standickinson.com/2014/04/19/paris-in-the-springtimeepisode-two/
http://standickinson.com/2014/04/20/paris-in-the-springtimeepisode-three/
I am very glad you enjoyed the experience Stan.
Having not visited Paris for many years, I was taken aback at the sheer quantity and variety of good photography on display, and all so easily accessible. That was a bit of a revelation to me, and I hope to get back there sooner this time.
Eileen, if we do it again next year, I can offer another Atget walk … this time in a more central location!!
Hello, Amano!
I would gladly join you on the new Atget walk. Just let me know when 🙂
And thanks a lot for the first one!
As a relative newbie to serious gallery-ing (?) I found both the visits and the company very rewarding.
Coming from Switzerland I do not have as many opportunities to go on study days and visits as I should wish for. So for me it was especially nice to be met halfway by other OCA students in Paris. I profited enormously by the museum and gallery visits (got some valuable hints on how to implement ideas and exhibit photographs quite apart from seeing so many great – and some a bit less great – works) and the discussions with colleagues in between. Certainly a rewarding experience – hope somebody will win a raffle ticket again soon, or we’ll find another reason to meet.
I will back up all the previous comments here: I thoroughly enjoyed these few days in company of other students, tutor, friends and partners in Paris. The wide range of exhibitions visited was also very interesting: small institutions and galleries like Le Bal and Les Filles du Calvaires contrasted in their approach with bigger institutions like Le Centre Pompidou and Le Grand Palais used to welcome a larger audience.
It was my second study visit, and probably the last one for a long time now, but the discussions, the diversity of works we saw and all this dynamic between us + the sharing of different approaches and experiences was a huge source of inspiration for me and opened new avenues of reflections.
The fact that it was in Paris was obviously a plus, but as says Eileen, I would recommend to try it anywhere and also with people coming from other disciplines too.
I have noticed that there are new students from Canada and I am going back to the US very soon, so I’ll be please to try to organize something similar in North America sometimes in 2015 (any volunteers?)…
Here is my first post: http://stephaniedhlearninglog3.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/study-visit-paris-1-henri-cartier-bresson/, the next ones will appear soon under this category: http://stephaniedhlearninglog3.wordpress.com/category/exhibitions/
An OCA meet in NYC might see a few of us making it over the pond !??
Chicago too …
I’ll make an update when I’ll notice and interesting event, well in advance…
You are right, New-York is probably more tempting than Chicago for many I guess, and probably cheaper too.
My Atget amble …
http://amanostudy.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/an-atget-amble-through-montmatre-paris/
The first was a surprise exhibition on the railings of the Luxembourg gardens …
http://amanostudy.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/fields-of-battle-lands-of-peace-luxembourg-gardens-paris/
The second one I saw was Veramente at the H.C-B foundation which was interesting …
http://amanostudy.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/veramente-at-foundation-cartier-bresson/
Our first joint exhibition as an OCA group was the Cartier-Bresson retrospective …
http://amanostudy.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/henri-cartier-bresson-retrospective-the-pompidou-centre/
The last exhibition seen was by Robert Adams …
http://amanophotoblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/the-place-where-we-live-robert-adams-at-the-jeu-de-paume-paris/
I am joining the above comments on the Paris study visit. It was very rich with various exhibitions. Personally, I would emphasize the first and the last ones: Cartier-Bresson retrospective and Robert Adams. Meeting friends, fellow students and tutors; discussing our studies, impressions, getting professional studies advice and exhibition opinion – there was so much inspiring and simply pleasant! And Amano’s walk with Atget was another star of the whole event.
By the way, there is a lot going on in Moscow too, as I have discovered after coming back (I will just mention terrifically impressive multi-screen show “Golden age of Russian avant-garde” by Peter Greenaway and Saskia Boddeke). So my blog about Paris is still on a planning stage.
Being the only textiles student in a group of photographers was an extremely refreshing experience which helped my vision of my own textile work. Since returning from Paris I have completed a whole project! I have always enjoyed photography and the range of exhibitions was truly diverse. The next challenge is to combine my photography work with my textile work.
It’s wonderful how it grew from those small beginnings and a comment on the OCA Flickr site.