Photography
Thierry Girard / Pierre Bergounioux
What does a landscape reveal? What secrets does it hold behind its apparent tranquility? While working on a project around Vassivière in the Limousin region, Thierry Girard was struck by the rebellious and defiant nature of the history and culture of this area. Drawing on this reflection, he attempts to capture, through his large-format photographs, the rich historical dimension of this region and its neighboring departments.
To evoke the land of the Resistance, but also all the forms of resistance that, over the centuries, have shaped the history of these regions: collective or individual revolts, peasant uprisings and social conflicts, but also the paths of exile or migration of populations driven by necessity.
His work has developed around places (cities, villages, countryside, forests) where a remarkable or more modest event has left its mark. The landscape often seems indifferent, often silent in relation to its history, but his skill lay in making this weight of the past rise to the surface of the image. Through research, sometimes gathering testimonies from local inhabitants, he presents, alongside each photograph, a short text recounting the historical event that took place there.
The writer Pierre Bergounioux, so attached to this land in the Centre of France, has written a substantial, unpublished text, recounting a short history of insubordination through the ages: from the Sumerian era to Tarnac in 2008! We find the strength of his literary style which here carries all his commitment.
Paysages insoumis, 31 x 24 cm landscape format, 96 pages, 50 four-color and two-color reproductions, full-color printed hardcover
By the same author: A Winter in the Oise
By the same author: Banquet Hall
By the same author: In the Thickness of the Landscape
Graphic design: Danish Pastry Design
« L’art du photographe est alors dans la saisie évocatrice des lumières, le fouillis des sous-bois, la suggestion du silence dans les cadrages déserts des villages, les perspectives étranges d’extensions urbaines (…) C’est l’alternance de photographies couleurs et noir-et-blanc qui structure, discrètement mais savamment, cette chronique visuelle de l’insoumission Limousine. »
Georges Châtain pour l’Echo-culture du 19 au 25 octobre
« À première vue, on peut être désorienté par cet assemblage de vues diverses. Mais bien vite, on comprend que ces paysages du quotidien offrent une lecture “historique” des lieux représentés. Les textes qui accompagnent les images soulignent cette dimension et permettent une relecture de celles-ci avec une nouvelle perspective. Jonglant entre la dimension plastique et la valeur documentaire, ce livre ambitieux trace un portrait de la France rurale qui répond au travail d’un certain Raymond Depardon… »
Jean-Christophe Béchet, Réponses photo n°251, février 2013.
