PARIS-MATIC (1970-1990)
Author: Bernard Plossu
Publisher: Éditions Marval / Rue Visconti
Paris, again and always, for this lover of the capital, Paris which he has photographed so much... But Paris-Matic... photographed with the Agfamatic, this disposable camera, almost a toy, which a photographer might not take seriously...
Bernard Plossu plays with the possibilities of the camera, very different from those of his professional Nikkormat, and offers us here a new "instant" look at the city...
"Photos taken with the Agfamatic, "for children" i.e. of an "childish technique"... Nothing to adjust, just put it on the little drawing of clouds or sun. A dream! And in fact, the most revolutionary cameras are the childish ones! Think about it, there's not even anything to adjust, you just have to press: you can take a picture even before you've had time to wonder if you're going to take the picture or not! You don't even have time to hesitate. Faster than reportage!
The photo with the Agfamatic, or any other Instamatic, allows you to go faster than thought; it is the shot in a state of pure spontaneity, the anti-Freud, the anti-Sartre, it goes straight to the point, it completely frees you from shyness, it also allows you to take pictures while laughing, rediscovering the world with, precisely, the naivety, happiness, freshness and immediacy of a child. Thanks to the extreme simplicity of this image toy, we finally free ourselves from our complex of being an adult photographer. Let's become Bibi Fricotin again!
And photography, thus freed from all cumbersome technique, finally becomes the photographic cry that offers us the total freedom to see, and to go faster than our brain. Finally, the vision transcribed at its purest level."
YANNICK VIGOUROUX. Born in 1970, photographer, art critic, exhibition curator and historian of photography. Graduated from the National School of Photography (Arles), he has published several books on photography including, with Jean-Marie Baldner, Les Pratiques pauvres, du sténopé au téléphone mobile (CNDP / CRDP Créteil, Isthmes éditions) (2005), and, with Christian Gattinoni, La photographie ancienne / La photographie moderne / La photographie contemporaine, as well as Histoire de la critique photographique at the new Scala editions. He is the specialist in France of the "Foto Povera".
THE "FOTO POVERA". The term "poor practices" applies to photographic approaches using amateur cameras. The approximate framing, the search for the non-event are as important as the events of the photojournalist. The theme of banality, of the ordinary is quite recurrent in so-called poor practices. Blurry, shaky, pixelated, imperfect, screened, these images are not failed photos. Bernard Plossu, to sum up 40 years of photography, retains the impression of having taken very good very bad photos and very bad very good photos. He thus evokes Diane Arbus for whom it is important to take bad photos.
- Year
- 2020
- ISBN
- 978-2-86234-467-6
- Pages
- 80
- Price
- 20.85 EUR — In stock
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