FROM ONE TO THE OTHER – THE PHOTOBOOK AND THE PORTRAIT

The &co119 Gallery is pleased to inaugurate a new format of exhibitions dedicated to photography books, exploring the theme of portraiture for this first edition.

While some see in the print, in “the” single photo, the most accomplished form of their work, others see in the photographic book a means more suited to the transmission of their message and the affirmation of their vision. The photographic book, while it is certainly composed of photographs, becomes an object whose purpose is revealed by the set of images presented. It allows a narrative and possibly evolutionary exploration of a theme.

In the context of the book, the presence and influence of the photographer are perhaps even more present than in the classic print in his choices of narration, selection, arrangement, formatting (format, design, paper, etc.). So many key elements that become an integral part of the story told and that lead to the paradox that the subject, in the book object, is sometimes no longer the one who is photographed. The subject then changes to no longer only speak of portraits, but of portraits in the plural.

For this exhibition, we will address the theme of the portrait through a narrow selection of well-known and lesser-known works.

It will present different points of view and approaches: scientific object, memory, pornographic, administrative identity, metaphorical, real or fiction, all have however this characteristic that they are discovered and formed by the medium of the book and not by each image taken individually. A way of (re)discovering photography from another angle, perhaps, we hope in any case.