La photo de famille, le roman familial (Family photography, the family novel)

2020

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A book that deals with the family photo and its central place in the writing of the family story.
How it creates the family, the vision it has of itself. How it is a trace and a clue. And through this subject that is the family photo, to approach the powers at the same time of affirmation of truth and creation of fiction that photography offers. I try to cover on the one hand the social object that is photography for the average family. How this photography is at the same time very controlled, it allows establishing what one wishes to represent of his family. By taking the codes of a good family photo, which shows itself in all its splendor. Codes, invented by the family itself. And on the other hand the emotional object, perhaps less controlled, of this family photo that contains in itself emotion for those whose story it tells. And which is transmitted to the viewer.
I mix my personal history with the work of artists. Whether they are photographers who focus on their families, or whether they use family photos as a support for their work. In this writing of the family novel, there is a selection and editing, which is a very important aspect. There are the images that are kept, framed, put in albums, etc., but there are also all the other images and it is very difficult to throw them away. The first images in the book are failed, rejected, unbilled, cropped images. But well all kept. This is something I talk about in the book, this desire not to let them die, by conserving and archiving. By historical interest, sociological or simply formal. But it is sure that there is something attractive in this aesthetic of the everyday.

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